What Bitcoin trading in this consolidation phase holds for the future

Disclaimer: The findings of the following analysis are the sole opinions of the writer and should not be considered investment advice

Bitcoin Dominance had found a bottom at 39.5% in January and has slowly been rising. This indicated that the capital flow was directed toward Bitcoin and away from altcoins. Moreover, the USDT (Tether) Dominance has also fallen from 4.87% last week, to 4.28% at press time, which suggested that market participants were beginning to deploy their capital into crypto assets after sitting on the sidelines with Tether. A recent report on Bitcoin noted that a period of heightened volatility may be around the corner. What can we expect from the king of the crypto sphere on the price charts?

BTC- 1D

Source: BTC/USDT on TradingView

The downtrend of Bitcoin began when the $59.1k level was broken and tested as resistance, and this downtrend appeared to last till early February. However, in early February, Bitcoin rallied to $45.8k, a local high.

Crucially, this mark was higher than the most recent lower high of the BTC downtrend at $44.6k. At the same time, the price also registered higher lows. This meant that, at the very least, the downtrend had stalled.

The $45.8k zone represents a strong zone of supply, and all the way to the $52k, the chart is crowded with areas where sellers are expected to be strong. Therefore, while a longer-term bearish bias has weakened considerably, the bulls were not in the driving seat either.

Rationale

Source: BTC/USDT on TradingView

The indicators painted much the same picture for Bitcoin. The RSI had crossed over above the neutral 50 line, after nearly a month of struggle. The MACD also formed a bullish crossover and climbed above the zero line. Both of these indicators showed that the hold of the bulls on the market had weakened- but not necessarily that bullish momentum was strong.

The OBV went a step further in highlighting how, despite a break in market structure, the demand from buyers was simply not strong enough. The OBV has been on a downtrend since November- and has climbed somewhat since January (higher lows). Yet, this development was likely not enough to spark a new move to the upside.

Conclusion

The price of Bitcoin appeared to be consolidating, as buyers and sellers fought fiercely over each significant horizontal level. The $44k-$45k area was a strong band of resistance, with $48k as a resistance level as well. To the south, the $38k level and the $35k-$36.4k area could act as support.