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(Kitco News) - The cryptocurrency market started the week with a slight downtrend as the weekend's short-lived coup attempt in Russia reverberated throughout financial markets on Monday but caused little material changes to the overall picture of the global financial system.
Equities slipped lower as some of the best-performing stocks in 2023 saw their ratings downgraded by Wall Street analysts in recent weeks – including Tesla, Apple and Google – which put pressure on the major indices as they are heavily influenced by a handful of stocks. At the close of markets, the S&P, Dow and Nasdaq all finished in the red, down 0.45%, 0.04%, and 1.16%, respectively.
Data from TradingView shows that Bitcoin (BTC) briefly dipped below support at $30,000 in the early hours on Monday, but managed to climb back above $30,200 in the afternoon, with bulls now battling bears for control of the price action at the psychologically important support/resistance level.
BTC/USD Chart by TradingView
Despite the weakness, July Bitcoin futures prices traded firmer in early U.S. trading on Monday, said Kitco senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff, who noted that futures prices “hit another contract high” on Sunday.
Bitcoin futures 1-day chart. Source: Kitco
“The bulls have the solid overall near-term technical advantage as a steep price uptrend is in place on the daily bar chart,” Wyckoff said. “The path of least resistance for prices is sideways to higher in the near term.”
According to Gunter Lackmann, an analyst at MN Trading, the recent push higher for Bitcoin “was much more aggressive than anticipated,” and resulted in "Liquidity (short stops) being tapped above the previous high of $31,046.”
BTC/USD 1-day chart. Source: MN Trading
This is a signal for “a potential change in the medium-term market structure,” Lackmann said. “If 30k offers support, we are likely to consolidate around here for a while before then going for another liquidity run in either direction.”
He said that he is currently leaning toward a move to the upside which could see BTC climb to $35,000 to $38,000 over the medium term, but more price development is needed before making a recommendation on which way the price will actually move.
“That does not mean that levels below us, like $28.5k or the previous consolidation range breakout area of $27.6k cannot be revisited first,” he warned. “For now I am keeping my eyes on $31,050 resistance and $30k support. I will also keep an eye out for a negative divergence forming on the RSI as it is overextended.”
Altcoins on the downtrend
The majority of altcoins in the top 200 traded in the red on Monday as concerns related to the broader economy kept traders on the sidelines for the time being.
Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360
The extra attention on Bitcoin as of late continued to benefit forks of the token, with Bitcoin Cash (BCH) gaining 16.46% to trade at $223 while Bitcoin SV (BSV) climbed 7.16% and currently trades at $37.42. NEAR Protocol was also a top performer on Monday, increasing by 10.35% to trade at $1.56.
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1.174 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 50%.
