Decentral Block Post

After failing to sustain above the resistance of its narrow range, Bitcoin (BTC) fell near a key support on July 18. The consolidation of the past few days seems to be an accumulation phase, according to Glassnode’s Bitcoin Accumulation Trend Score. A similar score was seen during the accumulation phases between November to December and again from March to April.

According to CoinShares data, institutional investors continue to plow funds into digital asset investment products, which rose to $742 million in the past four weeks. Bitcoin continues to attract the lion’s share of the funds, with last week alone accounting for $140 million in inflows.

Morgan Creek Capital chief investment officer and founder Mark Yusko said in an interview with Cointelegraph that Bitcoin’s fair value is $55,000 and the markets are likely to “drift upwards toward that level.” Once this level is crossed, Yusko expects speculators to step in, resulting in a blow-off top sometime in 2024.

What are the important support levels that need to hold in Bitcoin and altcoins to prevent a deeper decline? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin slid below the 20-day exponential moving average ($30,124) on July 17 and tested the crucial support of $29,500 on July 18. The long tail on the day’s candlestick shows that lower levels continue to attract buyers.

In the latest episode of The Market Report, Cointelegraph analyst and writer Marcel Pechman discusses Ripple’s partial victory against the Securities and Exchange Commission and its impact on the crypto market. Although people traded based on emotion after headlines popped out, the next day, as investors could process what happened, the altcoins gave away half of the gains.

On July 13, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that Ripple’s XRP (XRP) token is not a security — but only for programmatic sales on digital asset exchanges. The question of sales to institutional investors remains an open case.

Moreover, according to a former chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Timothy Massad, the SEC could appeal the judge’s decision. Therefore, this initial win for Ripple could still be overturned.

According to Pechman, the XRP decision was a non-event in price terms. The spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund impact is likely the main trigger for the next 18 months, even though initially, altcoins tend to underperform relative to BTC.

Lastly, Pechman analyzes how macroeconomics and regulatory concerns might drive Bitcoin’s price to $29,000 — starting with the Bitcoin futures premium stagnating around a neutral 7% level for the past week. Next, the show covers the Tether (USDT) premium in China, which reached its lowest level in over six months, indicating excessive demand to exit crypto markets.