Bitcoin (Bitcoin) oscillated around $43,000 on Jan. 17 as a “boring” price move combined with signs that the market may be stabilizing.
BTC/USD 1 Hour Candlestick Chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView
Leverage reaches an all-time high
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and trading view showed that BTC/USD remains firmly within its established trading range between $40,000 and $45,000.
With few surprises in store thanks to the Wall Street holiday, traders took the opportunity to call for a prudent approach to altcoin focus.
Bitcoin is down a few hundred dollars! Quick, someone has a story for this incredible crash and spreads it in the media and on Twitter!
(This is sarcasm, nothing happens, bitcoin is sideways and boring)
– The wolf of all streets (@scottmelker) January 17, 2022
Popular analyst William Clemente, meanwhile, highlighted that this month Bitcoin is bouncing along an ascending trendline that will soon approach an inflection point as part of a wedge construction.
“Should be an interesting week,” he said forecast.
Beyond the spot price, the data showed that the market composition is still close to the all-time high leverage, this is just beginning to decrease in the second week of January.
Such levers prevail raised concerns that if a significant move up or down hits traders, a liquidity cascade could become all the more real.
“Bitcoin’s sharply increased leverage ratio, which has remained at an all-time high for several days, shows concern that a massive spike in volatility will follow,” commented Vince Prince warned on that day.
“Technically, if Bitcoin breaks $40,000, that will trigger a large chunk of stop losses.”
Bitcoin leverage ratio chart. Source: CryptoQuant
Cardano stands out among altcoins
Meanwhile, on the topic of altcoins, some moves deviated from the flatter performance seen more broadly.
Related: BTC Will “Likely” Repeat Q4 2020 Move – 5 Things to Watch in Bitcoin This Week
The top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap were led by Cardano (THERE IS), which has conspicuously bucked the sideways trend and is up nearly 9% on the day as of this writing. This took ADA/USD to a three-week high.
“Crucially, market psychology is getting back to work on $ADA,” said Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe summarized.
“The last few weeks the mood has been like a graveyard and the expectations were that it was going down. Now the mood is changing and the hype is coming back.”
ADA/USD 1-day candlestick chart (Coinbase). Source: TradingView
Below, Litecoin (LTC) managed 4.5% gains in a brief respite for Hodler.
Litecoin’s friend intervened, telling him life was worth living and saying, “Think of your family.”
Litecoin said “Not today” and stepped back from the ledge.
Another bounce on strong support. Breaking the blue resistor should make this fly. Not here yet. https://t.co/CvJtodHwNB pic.twitter.com/VOC5psrUhF
– The wolf of all streets (@scottmelker) January 17, 2022
“Another bounce at strong support. Breaking the blue resistor should make this fly. Not there yet,” added trader, analyst and podcast host Scott Melker of the LTC/USD pair.
