Bitcoin analyst identifies new key levels as Ethereum price nears 3-week high

Bitcoin (BTC) continued to work on cracking the $17,000 mark on Jan. 4 as an “extremely tight” trading zone held firm.

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

$17,000 “possible” thanks to CPI print

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting $16,906 on Bitstamp, up $300 from the previous day’s low.

The largest cryptocurrency had benefited from a positive start to the year on Wall Street, this giving a broader boost to previously sideways crypto assets.

“Bitcoin trading with legacy markets yesterday,” Filbfilb, co-founder of trading suite DecenTrader, began a summary of recent events by stating.

Analyzing the 12-hour chart, he argued that the 50-day moving average (MA) needed to hold for bulls, with the immediate range support and resistance levels at $15,500 and $18,000, respectively.

Next week’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) release for the United States, if favorable, could give BTC price action the catalyst it needs.

“Bitcoin needs to maintain the 50 DMA and break last week’s high but a trip there seems possible heading into the CPI data,” Filbfilb added:

“At the moment we are in the upper range of last week’s price action.”BTC/USD annotated chart. Source: Filbfilb/ Twitter

As Cointelegraph reported, others had hoped that there would be sufficient impetus for Bitcoin to follow in the footsteps of both stocks and gold as 2023 got underway.

The latter, trading firm QCP Capital explained on the day, was due to a “Start of year allocation into alternative assets.”

XAU/USD was up 15% in the last two months, it wrote in a market update sent to Telegram channel subscribers, with January historically its best month of the year.

“Despite the mini rally, BTC is still trading in an extremely tight falling wedge – with 18k the key breakout level to the topside,” it continued, echoing Filbfilb:

“In the medium-term, 28k is looking more and more key – as the Head and shoulders neckline, and 61.8% fibonacci retracement level of the $3,858 2020 low to $69,000 2021 high.”BTC/USD annotated chart. Source: QCP Capital