Bearish view
- Sell the BTC/USD pair and set a take-profit at 15,500.
- Add a stop-loss at 17,500.
- Timeline: 1-2 days.
Bullish view
- Set a buy-stop at 17,200 and a take-profit at 18,500.
- Add a stop-loss at 15,500.
The BTC/USD price remained under pressure during the weekend as the outlook for the crypto industry darkened. Bitcoin was trading at $16,702, which was much lower than last week’s high of over $18,000.It has dropped to the lowest level since November 29.
Crypto outflows continue
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies continued retreating during the weekend as outflows in the crypto industry continued. According to DeFi Llama, Binance has seen outflows worth over $7.2 billion in the past seven days. Similarly, exchanges like Bitfinex, Crypto.com, and KuCoin have had outflows worth millions of dollars in the same period.
Binance has been under more pressure than other exchanges because of its business practices. It has no headquarters, which is a risky situation for the biggest crypto exchange in the world. Worse, Mazars, its auditor, announced that it was ending its audit for crypto exchanges.
Therefore, investors will only gain confidence in the company if it hires one of the top four audit companies. Audits are an important part of the crypto industry following the collapse of FTX and other exchanges this year.
The BTC/USD price also continued dropping as investors reacted to the latest interest rate decision by the Federal Reserve decision. In it, the bank decided to hike interest rates by 0.50% after increasing by 0.75% in the previous four meetings.
The Fed also warned that it will continue its hawkish tone despite the fact that inflation was easing. Data published by US showed that inflation dropped to 7.3% in November from the previous 7.7%.
The next key catalyst of Bitcoin prices will be the ongoing volatility in the crypto industry as outflows from exchanges continue. After suffering significant losses this year, some investors have decided to sell their coins. Others have moved them to self custody fearing the collapse of exchanges.
BTC/USD forecast
The 4H chart shows that the BTC/USD price has been in a strong bearish trend in the past few days. It has dropped to the lowest level in more than two weeks. In this period, the 25-day and 50-day moving averages have made a bearish crossover pattern.
The pair also dropped below the important support at $16,897, which was the lowest point on December 12. It also invalidated the inverted head and shoulders pattern. Therefore, the pair will likely continue falling as sellers target the next key support at 15,500.
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