(Kitco News) – The trend of Bitcoin (BTC) notching new record highs continued on Thursday as King Crypto tapped $73,848 on Coinbase in the early hours of trading, but it has since fallen under pressure and is risking a deeper correction.
Data provided by TradingView shows that after bulls managed to defend support at $73,000 late on Wednesday, they attempted a run higher, but ran out of steam below $74,000 as a large sell wall reinforced the bears’ resistance line and prevented any further gains.
BTC/USD Chart by TradingView
At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $71,275, a decrease of 2.4% on the 24-hour chart.
The waning bull momentum is not surprising as Bitcoin has been on a non-stop tear since Feb. 26. Analysts have been predicting a sizable pullback for some time, saying it would actually be a positive development because no market goes up forever and corrections are healthy as they help flush out speculators.
Bitcoin’s price stall also comes as inflows into spot BTC ETFs have moderated, with Wednesday’s increase of $683.7 million significantly lower than Tuesday’s inflows of $1.045 billion. In reality, Tuesday’s heavy inflows were the exception and Wednesday’s flows fell more in line with the recent average, according to data from Farside.
In response to the reduction in inflows, Bitcoin analyst and statistician Willy Woo suggested the decrease was only temporary as more institutions and wealth management platforms will start making allocations in the coming months.
Daily flows into #Bitcoin visualised (rolling 7d average).
Dark green patch is the influx from US Spot ETFs.
The ETFs are just getting started, institutions and wealth management platforms will take a couple of months to complete due diligence before proper allocation begins. pic.twitter.com/85d8Rep72V— Willy Woo (@woonomic) March 14, 2024
According to cryptocurrency investor British HODL, the selling pressure seen on Thursday is an attempt by the market to initiate a correction, and during previous cycles, it would likely have resulted in a 20-30% pullback.
This selling pressure right now, is the market trying to force a correction in #Bitcoin.
In the previous cycles, this would have been a 20-30% correction.
This time is so different, can't play with a billy a day of net demand.— British HODL ❤️??❤️? (@BritishHodl) March 14, 2024
Adding context to British HODL’s “this time is different” statement was economist Alessandro Ottaviani, who highlighted how Bitcoin ETF demand has significantly surpassed previous estimates.
To put things in prospective: many experts forecasted a total net inflow between $10b and $15b for 2024.
In the last three trading days the total net inflow has been $2.2b.
We are very bullish, but maybe not bullish enough.#Bitcoin— Alessandro Ottaviani (@AlexOttaBTC) March 14, 2024
Mathematician Fred Krueger suggested that if the inflows continue at the rate they have been, Bitcoin could easily surpass $400,000 by the end of 2024, with an outside chance of hitting seven digits.
“Feb Inflows were 117K BTC/45K BTC = 5 Billion. March is trending 153K BTC/68K BTC = 10 Billion. Together 270K BTC in 60 days = 15 Billion,” he tweeted. “Very likely we get another 100 Billion for the rest of the year. (9 months). At a 70 multiple, 7 Trillion added to Market Cap 8.4 Trillion MC = 420K end-of-year target. There is an outside chance we get to 1MM end of year.”
Another development that many in the crypto industry had been wondering about for years finally arrived: Peter Schiff admitted that he should have bought Bitcoin in 2010 when a work colleague first mentioned it to him.
“Do I wish I had made the decision to have thrown $10,000, $50,000, $100,000 into it? Sure,” Schiff said during a Wednesday interview on Impact Theory with Real Vision co-founder and CEO Raoul Pal. “I may be worth hundreds of millions assuming I didn’t sell but again I don’t know what I would have done had I made that decision.”
This is a notable admission from Schiff, as just last November while being interviewed by Yahoo Finance, he said, “Bitcoin is a pure ponzi, it's a pyramid, the demand for Bitcoin is based on the belief that you can sell it to somebody else at a higher price.”
He told Pal that he seriously considered buying BTC in 2010 when it was around $1 but ultimately decided against it, concluding the potential investment was “ridiculous.”
“I would have bought it just betting on other people being dumb enough to buy it and pay a higher price,” he said. But that outlook would have likely changed over time, he noted, saying that a successful Bitcoin investment would have made him feel more like a “genius” than a “gambler,” and therefore, he would’ve fallen under the same “delusion” as Bitcoin investors, which he later described as “greedy” and “foolish.”
