BTC/USD Analysis – December 20, 2021

Bitcoin Price Prediction

The BTC/USD was closed at $46,716.50 after hitting a high of $48,283.00 and a low of $46,474.90. BTC/USD dropped on Sunday but remained consolidated as the market participants struggled to find a significant direction to move further. Bitcoin was under pressure over the weekend as the US Securities and Exchange Commission was continuously delaying decisions on Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) as it issued two fresh deadline extension notices. The SEC recently postponed two major BTC ETF offering proposals, Bitwise Bitcoin ETP Trust and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust's Bitcoin ETF. The SEC now expects to decide whether to approve or disapprove or institute proceedings to determine whether to disapprove Bitwise BTC ETF and Grayscale BTC ETF on Feb. 1 and Feb. 6, respectively. The delay in the SEC's decision added negative pressure on BTC/USD over the weekend.

Furthermore, the rising US dollar price also added negative pressure on BTC/USD over the weekend. The US dollar was getting strength from the latest decision by the Federal Reserve to increase the pace of its bond tapering by 50% from January. Furthermore, it was also gathering strength from its safe-haven status, which was triggered by the rising fears of the Omicron variant and its impact on global economic recovery. The variant has reached 77 countries, and its spread has been continuously increasing, with a record-high number of daily cases being reported in the US, United Kingdom, and European nations. As a result, the strong US dollar put additional downward pressure on the leading cryptocurrency, as the two negatively correlate.

On the flip side, the Mexican retail chain Elektra and the South Korean-Japanese video-game publisher Nexon have announced that they accept bitcoin payments. With the help of a partnership with BitPay, one of the largest supermarket chains in Mexico has started receiving payments in Bitcoin. The supermarket will allow its customers to pay their bills in bitcoin instead of fiat currencies, and this news added some positive momentum surrounding BTC.

Furthermore, BitPay also announced a partnership with another major company, Nexon, to enable its customers to pay their bills in BTC. Players will be able to buy games like MapleStory, KartRider, Mabinogi, V4, and many more using BTC and ten more cryptocurrencies. The reason for including the digital asset payment method was players' growing interest in cryptocurrencies.

BTC/USD Intraday Technical Levels

Support Resistance

46033.2 47841.3

45350.0 48966.2

44225.1 49649.3

Pivot Point: 47158.1

BTC/USD - Technical Outlook

Bitcoin has begun a recovery wave above the $46,500 barrier level and cleared the $48,000 mark, but could not rise past the $48,200 mark.

A high near $48,289 was achieved, and the price corrected lower. It was trading below the 50 percent Fib retracement level of the upward run from the swing low of $45,520 to the high of $48,289. The bitcoin price is currently trading below $48,000 and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

On the upside, an immediate barrier is near the $47,000 mark. The first significant resistance is located near the $47,200 level and the 100 hourly SMA. On the hourly timeframe of the BTC/USD pair, a significant negative trend line is forming with resistance near $47,200.

Near the $46,500 level is the 61.8 percent Fib retracement level of the upward run from the $45,520 swing low to the $48,289 high. If the price falls below $46,500, it may move towards the $45,500 support. The next significant support level is near $45,000, below which there is a chance of a strong drop below $43,200.