Bitcoin price headed for monthly close beneath key level despite increased hodling and reduced on-exchange reserves that point to a bullish signal for the top cryptocurrency
Bitcoin price has bounced between lows of $8,800 and highs of $10,450 in June, with traders looking for a monthly close above the $9,000 range.
The BTC/USD pair was exchanging hands at around $9,150 on major spot exchanges as of 06:54 UTC on this morning.
Yesterday, BTC/USD failed to rally higher following a lacklustre weekend. Thursday saw the top cryptocurrency’s price drop from highs of $9,600 to lows of $8,900. The rot came after the expiry of $1 billion worth of Bitcoin options on June 26 — the largest options expiry to date.
After touching highs of $9,260 in the past 48 hours, bulls have failed to propel prices higher as sellers thwarted efforts with a low of $9,012.
A monthly close below this key level has in the past preceded price rejections to new lows. A close below $9,300 could see a drop to lows of $8,100, as seen in May.
On-exchange reserves hit a 13-month low
The number of Bitcoin held on exchanges over the past month has dropped considerably, on-chain analysis platform Glassnode tweeted recently.
The behaviour is arguably indicative of the bullish sentiment around Bitcoin despite its current price struggles.
61% of the Bitcoin supply has not moved over the past year. The only other time this much Bitcoin stayed in wallet addresses was in the days leading up to the 2017 bull market that ended with BTC/USD hitting its all-time high of $20k.
Low volatility
Trading volume has reduced significantly over the past week and throughout the rest of June as shown on the chart. Historical data on CoinMarketCap shows that intraday volumes have dropped from around $35 billion worth of BTC/USD traded on June 1, to $16 billion in the past 24 hours.
The chart below by Skew shows that spot volume on Coinbase has fallen over the month.
Bitcoin’s drop to lows of $8,890 over the weekend quickly recovered, albeit with low volume. With the cryptocurrency’s volatility also hitting all-time lows over the month, BTC/USD is likely to remain vulnerable to downward moves. The trend will also likely be strengthened if the correlation to the stock market continues.
