Bitcoin (BTC) tapped $25,000 for a third time on Feb. 19 as an all-important weekly close approached.
BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView
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Analysis warns over whale moves
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting $25,038 on Bitstamp.
Out-of-hours trading continued to see bulls pushing for a support-resistance flip of the key level, this marking the start of a major resistance cloud involving several long-term trend lines.
With everything to play for into the weekly close, the atmosphere among traders was tense.
"Sunday price movement can typically only be trusted towards daily close. Other than that, just gotta hope it stays in current range," popular trader Josh Rager acknowledged on Twitter.
Analyzing Binance order book activity, monitoring resource Material Indicators warned that large-volume players were still manipulating spot price by moving bid and ask levels.
“The notorious BTC buy wall moved AGAIN!” it wrote in a previous update.
“It appears they are trying to push price into their own asks. If they can attract enough buyers to clear $25k there's little friction to $26k and thin air to $30k. No clue how long they can do this. Happy to play along.”
BTC/USD order book data (Binance). Source: Material Indicators/ Twitter
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At the time of writing, volatility continued to edge back into spot markets with still more than six hours remaining until the UTC weekly candle close.
2017 comparison suggests "big move" in coming week
The longer-term view meanwhile formed cause for calm for trading suite Decentrader on the day.
Comparing current price behavior to Bitcoin's previous four-year halving cycle, the firm argued that in fact, everything was playing out in line with historical norms.
"The recent move from $17k to $23k matches the 2017 move around the 1000 day mark," it tweeted alongside an explanatory chart.
"Price ranged and moved slightly higher for 30 days and then put in another big move of roughly equal size. If Bitcoin continues to mirror 2017 we could be in for a big move this week."
BTC price comparative chart. Source: Decentrader/ Twitter
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Decentrader CEO Filbfilb additionally stated that $180,000 was "the target" for BTC/USD upside.
"I’ll finesse with rational later but this is the short form," he added.
