Bearish Case
Set a sell-stop at 38,500 and add a take-profit at 37,000.
Add a take-profit at 40,000.
Timeline: 1-2 days.
Bullish View
Set a buy-stop at 40,000 and add a take-profit at 42,500.
Add a stop-loss at 38,000.
The BTC/USD is in a tight range as investors wait for the upcoming US non-farm payroll (NFP) data and as attacks of Bitcoin SV rises. The market is also watching Ethereum’s hard fork. The Bitcoin price is trading at $39,320, which is lower than this week’s high of 42,640.
Ethereum London Hard Fork
Bitcoin is trading closer to the $40,000 resistance as traders focus on the London hard fork. The fork, which takes place in the next few hours, will lead to lower gas fees and introduce the concept of burning to Ethereum’s network. This will, in turn, reduce the number of Ethereums in circulation.
This trend helped push Ethereum’s price up by about 10% to more than $2,700. The price action of Ethereum is important in Bitcoin’s case because the two coins have a close correlation. At the same time, there is a possibility of a rotation from Bitcoin to Ethereum as investors anticipate better returns from the altcoin.
Meanwhile, BTC/USD is holding steady as investors wait for the latest non-farm payrolls data that will come out on Friday. The data are expected to show that the American economy added more than 700k jobs in July after adding 850k jobs in June.
The unemployment rate is expected to decline from 5.9% to 5.7%. These numbers are important because they have an impact on US monetary policy. Strong numbers will likely push the BTC/USD pair lower as the US dollar strengthens.
Meanwhile, the price is in a tight range after a report by Bloomberg predicted that the coin will jump to $100,000 in the next few months. The report cited the ongoing supply and demand dynamics. While supply is falling, demand from fund managers and companies is set to keep rising. It said:
“Bitcoin appears to have built a base around $30,000 that's akin to $4,000 at the start of 2019, and we see performance parallels that could get the benchmark crypto back on track toward $100,000.”
Bitcoin Price Forecast
The BTC/USD is trading at 39,320, which is above this week’s low of 37,529. On the four-hour chart, the pair rose above the 25-day and 50-day moving average. It is also slightly below the important resistance at 41,320, which was the highest level on June 25. While the overall trend is bullish, the pair seems to be forming a head and shoulders pattern. Therefore, there is a possibility that it will bounce back lower as bears target the key support at 35,000.
