What’s Next For Bitcoin Prices As They Struggle Close To $43,000?

Bitcoin prices have been encountering some difficulty recently, repeatedly falling below the $43,000 level and then failing to mount significant recoveries.

The world’s most prominent digital currency dropped to $42,777.20 around 9:30 a.m. EDT, CoinDesk data shows.

Shortly after, the cryptocurrency recovered somewhat, rising to $43,962.01 at roughly 11 a.m. EDT.

After enjoying this rebound, the digital asset fell back, declining to approximately $42,840 around 1:30 p.m.

At the time of this writing, bitcoin had appreciated slightly, trading close to $42,950.

[Ed note: Investing in cryptocoins or tokens is highly speculative and the market is largely unregulated. Anyone considering it should be prepared to lose their entire investment.]

Following these latest price movements, several experts weighed in, shedding some light on where the cryptocurrency might go next.

Ben McMillan, CIO at IDX Digital Assets, offered some input, identifying crucial levels of support and resistance.

“$43k is a key support in the near term as bitcoin looks to build on its relative strength over the last weeks,” he stated.

“This level also happens to be the 200-day moving average which is a key threshold for a lot of the technical traders,” said McMillan.

“To the upside, bitcoin has struggled recently around $47k-$48k so that represents a pocket of selling pressure that’s providing some resistance for now,” he added.

“As has been the case over the last several weeks, concerns about Russia and the Fed have been a drag on all risk assets including bitcoin,” McMillan emphasized.

Armando Aguilar, Head of Alternative Strategies for financial services firm Ledn, offered a different take on the matter.

“BTC has broken the monthly pivot at mid $43k,” he stated, adding that in spite of this development, the “price trend has shown strong support.”

The “Next support level is $42k and if breached, could bring BTC to as low as mid $39k,” Aguilar added.

Interestingly enough, Ben Armstrong, founder of BitBoy Crypto, mentioned figures that were almost exactly the same.

“Big key level is $42k as long as we stay above $42k that will be good,” he said.

“If we hit below that number we’ll be seeing it hover around $39k.”

Aguilar also singled out some important levels that traders should watch for if bitcoin moves higher.

“On the upside, the $46k resistance levels are the next upside point,” he stated.

“Bulls are looking for the 200-day SMA to break $48.3k resistance level.”

Mark Elenowitz, co-founder of Ethereum-powered exchange Upstream, also weighed in, offering an optimistic outlook for bitcoin.

“Confidence in the crypto markets has been somewhat shaken on a short-term basis, but if you extend your time horizons, nothing could look more bullish for Bitcoin,” he claimed.

“A lot of this price action now depends on how far the Federal Reserve takes its tightening of monetary policy, but, again, I strongly feel that this is short-term noise,” said Elenowitz.

“Bitcoin, if anything, offers traders surprises. And while sentiment seems to be trending somewhat bearish, I think it’s highly possible that we not only retake the $46,000 levels in the coming week or so, but that we are poised to shoot past resistance and move beyond $48,000 again,” he added.

“If this plays out as I expect, there is a good chance that the resistance between $49,000 and $50,000 won’t be broken until after a few tries, followed by a retest of support. Once this happens, we could easily surge to $50,000 and beyond, given that the adoption rate of Bitcoin is continuing to surge despite sluggish macro conditions.”

“Indeed, Bitcoin should be viewed as something separate from equity markets in the medium and long term, and both traders and investors should be prepared for aggressive moves upwards,” Elenowitz concluded.

Disclosure: I own some bitcoin, bitcoin cash, litecoin, ether, EOS and sol.