BTC price faces 20% drop in weeks if Bitcoin avoids key level — analyst

CointelegraphPublished on 2022-12-19Last updated on 2022-12-19

Abstract

Bitcoin does not look good when it comes to sustained BTC price upside, traders warn, as GBTC reaches a fresh record discount.

Bitcoin stayed rigid below $17,000 at the Dec. 19 Wall Street open as skeptical traders feared more downside.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

BTC traders call time on upside potential

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD lingering around the $16,700 mark, practically unmoved over the weekend.

The pair saw only fractional volatility at the open, as United States equities fell slightly. At the time of writing, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index were down 0.5% and 1%, respectively.

For Bitcoin traders, there was little to celebrate, with consensus forming around the potential for testing lower levels next.

“Bearish as long as it stays below the $19k,” Crypto Poseidon summarized alongside a chart.

BTC/USD annotated chart. Source: Crypto Poseidon/ Twitter

Popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital highlighted $17,150 as an important level to reclaim to avoid further downside later on.

“If BTC continues to reject from the ~$17150 resistance... Then price could drop up to -20% to the downside in the coming weeks,” he predicted, uploading the 1-month BTC/USD chart.

Rekt Capital added that there was “still time for BTC to perform a Monthly Close above the ~$17150 level later this month,” but that “a Monthly Close below ~$17150 would confirm the beginnings of a breakdown from here.”

Michaël van de Poppe, founder and CEO of trading firm Eight, meanwhile offered a slightly more hopeful outlook.

With more U.S. economic data expected toward the end of the week, BTC/USD had the potential to break to the upside and target $17,300 to then offer “short opportunities.”

“No breakthrough, then looking for longs around $16.2K or $15.5K,” he countered.

BTC/USD annotated chart. Source: Michaël van de Poppe/ Twitter

Grayscale CEO: FTX was a "failure of people"

News that BinanceUS, the U.S. offshoot of largest crypto exchange Binance, had offered to acquire the assets of stricken lender Voyager, meanwhile had no tangible impact on market performance.

The latest development in the FTX saga, the announcement came as Binance itself continued to deal with what its CEO, Changpeng Zhao again called “FUD” over the weekend.

In a letter to investors, meanwhile, Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of investment firm Grayscale, sought to draw a clear distinction between FTX and crypto as a whole. Grayscale’s parent company, Digital Currency Group (DCG), had previously also become caught up in the FTX aftermath.

“FTX Was a Failure of People, Not a Failure of Crypto: Too many investors were harmed. From crypto to traditional finance, mainstream media, and D.C. – it seems few were spared from deception through false narratives and false documentation,” he wrote.

“We should not, however, conflate the actions of a few individuals and organizations with Bitcoin or Ethereum, the underlying blockchain technology, or smart contracts and decentralized finance applications.”

Grayscale’s flagship product, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), traded at a 48.7% discount to the Bitcoin spot price as of Dec. 17 — its steepest discount ever, according to data from Coinglass.

GBTC premium vs. asset holdings vs. BTC/USD chart. Source: Coinglass

Related Reads

Don't Just Focus on Layoffs, The New Structure of the Ethereum Foundation is More Worthy of Appreciation

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has undergone a significant organizational restructuring, with the most notable change being a strategic refocusing of its priorities rather than just a 20% staff reduction (approximately 54 people). The new structure clearly prioritizes the Protocol and Access layers, which now comprise the largest teams (57 and 34 people, respectively). This signals EF's intent to concentrate its core resources on fundamental, hard-to-outsource aspects of Ethereum: protocol evolution, security, privacy, client development, and the foundational access layer. Key areas within the Protocol layer, led by an architecture group including Vitalik Buterin and Justin Drake, receive heightened emphasis. These include post-quantum security, zkEVM, formal verification, and long-term roadmap development ("Strawmap"). This reflects a shift towards tackling complex, interdependent challenges like scalability, privacy, and future-proofing the protocol, potentially moving from a pure "redundant security" multi-client model towards more specialized clients aided by AI-assisted formal verification. Financially, EF's budget is being reduced by approximately 40%. The goal is to transition from spending about 15% of its remaining funds annually to a more sustainable 5% rate, akin to a long-term endowment, ensuring its longevity. Concurrently, the restructuring involves pushing certain responsibilities—such as application development, adoption, and ecosystem coordination—to external organizations like EthLabs, the Ethereum Apps Guild, and others. This "multi-node" model aims to increase ecosystem resilience by decentralizing functions beyond the EF, though it introduces new coordination challenges. In essence, the reorganization represents EF consciously narrowing its scope to focus on the hardest, most critical protocol-level problems while fostering a more distributed and sustainable ecosystem structure for Ethereum's future growth.

Foresight News28m ago

Don't Just Focus on Layoffs, The New Structure of the Ethereum Foundation is More Worthy of Appreciation

Foresight News28m ago

Report Analysis: What Is Coherent Planning as CPO Booms?

Title: Report Interpretation: What Moves Is Coherent Making Amid the CPO Boom? Summary: JP Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee reiterates an Overweight rating on Coherent (COHR), citing undervalued growth potential across three core areas: data center optical transceivers, co-packaged optics (CPO) chips, and industrial lasers/thermal management. COHR's 1.6T data center transceivers are in high demand, with pricing remaining firm. The rise of CPO is seen not as a threat but as a catalyst, creating higher demand for sophisticated optical components, an area where COHR holds a competitive edge with its comprehensive portfolio (lasers, isolators, VCSELs, thermoelectric coolers). Each CPO chip offers significantly greater revenue potential than traditional transceivers. Furthermore, its Optical Circuit Switch (OCS) technology targets a potential $4B market with reliability and power advantages. The company is expanding its InP (Indium Phosphide) device capacity fourfold within two years, securing substrate supply and transitioning to more cost-effective 6-inch wafers. As one of only two major suppliers of high-quality pump lasers—currently in severe shortage—COHR can now move up the value chain from components to complete line cards/systems, boosting ASP over tenfold. Gross margin targets (>42%) may be revised upward due to high-end product premiums, cost improvements from the wafer transition, and contributions from new high-margin products like CPO and OCS. Its efficient thermadite thermal material also offers long-term growth. Industrial segment revenue grows at a steady 5-10%, supported by semiconductor equipment orders. Changes in Apple's Face ID protocol present a re-competition opportunity for 3D sensing. Overall, Coherent is positioned as a key infrastructure provider, with AI-driven compute demand fueling the need for high-speed optical interconnectivity. Growth from CPO/OCS, stable industrial performance, and margin improvement support the bullish thesis. *Disclaimer: This summary interprets a third-party analyst report from JP Morgan. It does not constitute investment advice.*

marsbit51m ago

Report Analysis: What Is Coherent Planning as CPO Booms?

marsbit51m ago

Dan Koe's New Article: Escape the Fate of the Wage Slave, How to Survive in the Tide of AI Replacement?

Dan Koe's article argues that the real threat in the AI era is not technology itself, but financial dependency on employers. He critiques the "wage slavery" of unfulfilling work and identifies five core skills for resilience: agency, taste, persuasion, persistence, and iteration. These are developed not by consuming content, but by starting your own venture. The key to escaping the "employee mindset" is a radical identity shift. This requires: 1) Drastically changing your environment and daily inputs, 2) Choosing a creative medium (like content or code) that provides real-world feedback through trial and error, and 3) Using that feedback to learn and adapt. Koe strongly advocates for content creation over coding for beginners, as it builds irreplaceable subjective taste and audience connection. The practical starting point is a 15-minute self-inquiry to define your "life's work." Answer: What do you know deeply? What innate abilities do you have? What childhood interests were suppressed? Then, identify your contrarian beliefs—what does the mainstream get wrong in your area? The overlap is your unique direction. The final, non-negotiable step is to publish your first piece of content tomorrow. Embrace that it will be bad; the goal is to enter the feedback loop of creation, learning, and iteration, which is the true path to independence.

marsbit1h ago

Dan Koe's New Article: Escape the Fate of the Wage Slave, How to Survive in the Tide of AI Replacement?

marsbit1h ago

After Laying Off 20% of Staff, What Are the Key Points of EF's New Structure?

Following the completion of a months-long organizational restructuring, the Ethereum Foundation (EF) announced a 20% workforce reduction (approximately 54 employees) on June 23rd. It reorganized its teams into five new core clusters: Protocol, Access, User, Community, and Institutional (plus Operations/Management support units). Officially, this move implements the EF's 2026 Mandate and 2025 Treasury Management Policy, aiming to create a more focused and "self-sovereign" organization. The restructuring prioritizes the CROPS principles—Censorship Resistance, Openness & Freedom, Privacy, and Security—as foundational organizational tenets. The Protocol cluster will focus on core protocol R&D, including MEV reduction and zkEVM. The Access cluster emphasizes preserving user "zero option" for non-custodial, permissionless interaction. The User, Community, and Institutional clusters will manage external engagement, with the latter handling institutional and regulatory matters. While offering enhanced severance and transition support for affected employees, the EF did not disclose budget allocations or specific KPIs for the new clusters. This has led to market uncertainty about the impact on project funding and development priorities. Analysts note the announcement's positive tone of mission focus contrasts with a backdrop of recent EF leadership changes and broader ecosystem pressures. The true impact—whether this signifies strategic realignment or reactive contraction—will become clearer as the new structure's resource allocation and project prioritization are revealed in the coming months.

marsbit1h ago

After Laying Off 20% of Staff, What Are the Key Points of EF's New Structure?

marsbit1h ago

Top-Tier MEV Bot Loses $7.5 Million: Is 'Approval' the Most Overlooked Fatal Risk On-Chain?

The article discusses a sophisticated attack on a prominent Ethereum MEV (Miner Extractable Value) bot, Jaredfromsubway.eth, resulting in a loss exceeding $7.5 million. Unlike typical exploits involving key leaks or smart contract bugs, this attack was a carefully orchestrated "reverse hunt." The attacker spent weeks deploying fake tokens and liquidity pools that mimicked legitimate assets like WETH and USDC. These pools were designed to appear as profitable arbitrage opportunities, tricking the automated bot's trading logic. During its normal operation, the bot was induced to grant ERC-20 token approvals to the malicious contracts. Once sufficient permissions were accumulated, the attacker drained the bot's funds by calling these pre-approved allowances. This incident highlights the often-underestimated risks associated with token approvals in Web3. The article explains that approvals are a fundamental mechanism, allowing smart contracts (like DEXs) to move a user's tokens on their behalf. However, risks arise from practices like granting infinite approvals, the persistence of approvals even after disconnecting from a dApp, and the potential for a once-trusted contract to become compromised later. The piece concludes with advice for managing approval risks: users should adopt the principle of least privilege (approving only the needed amount), use separate wallets for storage versus interactions, and regularly audit and revoke unnecessary approvals using tools like Revoke.cash. It also emphasizes the role of wallets like imToken in providing proactive defenses, such as risk warnings and clear, readable transaction signing interfaces, to help users make informed decisions. Ultimately, wallet security must extend beyond private key protection to include active management of token approvals.

marsbit1h ago

Top-Tier MEV Bot Loses $7.5 Million: Is 'Approval' the Most Overlooked Fatal Risk On-Chain?

marsbit1h ago

Trading

Spot
Futures
活动图片