Bitcoin Falls into Regress Following Prolonged Consolidation

Bitcoin (BTC) continues to struggle to make any meaningful headway above the $44,500 top, as the benchmark cryptocurrency stalled around this barrier for the past 24 hours.

Analysts opine that BTC has fallen into a sideways bias following new comments from the US Fed. The recently released FOMC minutes came with some surprises for the financial markets, ultimately prompting the primary cryptocurrency to adopt a range-bound momentum. While the market expects a rate hike in March, no firm confirmations came from the minutes. A statement from the minute read:

“The Committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2 percent over the longer run.

In support of these goals, the Committee decided to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent. With inflation well above 2 percent and a strong labor market, the Committee expects it will soon be appropriate to raise the target range for the federal funds rate.”

The minutes also revealed that the Fed plans to cease all asset purchases in March, as proposed in its previous plans.

Moving on, with no market-moving data or news in the market on Thursday, the cryptocurrency market remained uninspired, further restricting Bitcoin within a range.

Commenting on the prevailing BTC price action, prominent trader and analyst Pentoshi took to Twitter to explain that: “My bias has changed a bit and now favor a squeeze towards 53k before mid-March.”

Key Bitcoin Levels to Watch — February 17

After a prolonged inability to break above the critical ascending trendline, BTC bears have taken the initiative and have driven prices lower, causing the flagship cryptocurrency to refresh its $42,000 low. While the $42,000 support has proven to be a tough level for bears to break, bulls cannot rest on their oars yet and need to defend this floor mark until the current bearish momentum loses steam.

With the absence of any market-moving data releases or news, BTC is left at the mercy of the prevailing market volatility and sentiment, painting a not-so-good picture for Bitcoin’s near-term price action.

Meanwhile, my resistance levels are at $43,400, $44,000, and $45,000, and my key support levels are at $42,000, $41,000, and $40,000.

Total Market Capitalization: $1.91 trillion

Bitcoin Market Capitalization: $797.5 billion

Bitcoin Dominance: 41.8%

Market Rank: #1