Decentral Block Post

The Doji candlestick, also called a Doji star, shows indecision between buyers and sellers in the crypto market. This type of candlestick is confirmed on a technical analysis chart when the opening and closing prices are almost identical.

What is a Doji pattern on the candlestick chart?

In simple terms, a Doji shows that an asset's buyers and sellers offset each other. In doing so, any attempts to push up the price by the buyers get thwarted by the sellers. Similarly, efforts to crash the prices from the sellers' end get foiled by the buyers.

Ultimately, both parties bring the price to a pivot level. So, for example, when Bitcoin (BTC) opens and closes at $20,000 on a particular day even if its price seesawed between $25,000 and $15,000 throughout the given24-hour period.

So the $25,000 price level — or the intraday high — represents the Doji's upper wick, and the $15,000 price level — the intraday low — represents the candlestick's lower wick.

How does a Doji candle work?

Doji candlesticks have historically helped traders predict market bottoms and tops as a calm before the storm of sorts.

Bitcoin (BTC) starts one of the most important macro weeks of the year in a precarious position below $17,000.

After its latest weekly close, BTC/USD showed little upward momentum prior to the Dec. 12 Wall Street open.

With volatility yet to appear, the largest cryptocurrency continues to trade in a narrow range, and analysts are increasingly impatient for new catalysts.

These, they agree, should come in the next few days — United States economic data is due, and its content and impact on economic policy will likely have a significant impact on crypto markets.

Elsewhere, the uneasy status quo continues — Bitcoin miners are struggling, sentiment lacks inspiration and traders are increasingly drawing comparisons to the pits of previous bear markets.

Minnesota Senator Tom Emmer has slammed United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler for his flawed “crypto information-gathering efforts” and insisted Gensler should appear before Congress to explain the cost of his “regulatory failures.”

Emmer’s comments came from a Dec. 10 tweet to his 67,500 Twitter followers, where he made reference to a bipartisan Blockchain Caucus letter he co-authored to the SEC Chairman on Mar. 16.

Emmer said, “we now know Gensler's crypto information-gathering efforts were ineffective” citing the collapses of the Terra ecosystem and bankrupt crypto platforms Celsius, Voyager and FTX.

“[Gensler] must testify before Congress and answer questions about the cost of his regulatory failures,” the Senator added.

He pointed out Gensler hasn’t made an appearance before the House Committee on Financial Services since Oct. 5. 2021 which left crypto media to fill the void for the SEC’s investigative failures according to Emmer.

Elon Musk's latest salvo in his war against crypto spam bots on Twitter appears to have made some real impact, with the crypto community reporting a vast reduction in the number of responses on their posts from bots. 

In a Dec. 11 post, the Twitter CEO hinted that “bots are in for a surprise tomorrow” and later explained that they've found a small number of people behind a large number of bot/troll accounts and that the platform will be shutting down IP addresses of “known bad actors.”

He then followed up by explaining that while scammers might try other methods to circumvent the IP address block, Twitter will also be “Shutting them down as soon as they show up.”

Shibetoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of Billy Markus, co-creator of meme coin Dogecoin (DOGE), told Musk in a Dec. 11 post, “I made a test post and instead of seeing 50 bot replies I only saw one much progress, very hype.”

Other users also went to test Musk’s latest changes. PlanB, a Bitcoin (BTC) analyst and investor posted a chart to see how many bots would reply to the post. At the time of writing, no responses from bots have shown up in the comments. 

It is understood that Terraform Labs’ controversial founder and CEO Do Kwon is currently located in the Southeast European nation of Serbia after leaving Singapore in September. 

According to a Dec. 11 report from Chosun Media, South Korean authorities followed a tip-off concerning Do Kwon's whereabouts suggesting he is now in Serbia and has been able to confirm it. 

"Recently, we obtained intelligence that CEO Kwon was in Serbia, and it was found to be true," an official told the outlet. 

The report also states that South Korea’s Ministry of Finance “is in the process of requesting cooperation from the Serbian government” as part of the investigation.

South Korean authorities have been on the hunt for Do Kwon since Terra's collapse, but evidently haven't had much luck pinpointing his location.

The relief rally in the United States equities markets took a breather this week as all major averages closed in the red. Traders seem to have booked profits before the busy economic calendar next week.

The S&P 500 index dropped 3.37%, but a minor positive for the cryptocurrency markets is that Bitcoin (BTC) has not followed the equities markets lower. This suggests that crypto traders are not panicking and dumping their positions with every downtick in equities.

The range-bound action in Bitcoin suggests that traders are avoiding large bets before the Federal Reserve’s rate hike decision on Dec. 14. However, that has not stopped the action in select altcoins, which are showing promise in the near term.

Let’s look at the charts of Bitcoin and select altcoins and spot the critical levels to watch out for in the short term.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin has been hovering around its 20-day exponential moving average (EMA) of $17,031 for the past few days. The flat 20-day EMA and the relative strength index (RSI) near 50 do not give a clear advantage either to the bulls or the bears.

The relief rally in the United States equities markets took a breather this week as all major averages closed in the red. Traders seem to have booked profits before the busy economic calendar next week.

The S&P 500 index dropped 3.37%, but a minor positive for the cryptocurrency markets is that Bitcoin (BTC) has not followed the equities markets lower. This suggests that crypto traders are not panicking and dumping their positions with every downtick in equities.

The range-bound action in Bitcoin suggests that traders are avoiding large bets before the Federal Reserve’s rate hike decision on Dec. 14. However, that has not stopped the action in select altcoins, which are showing promise in the near term.

Let’s look at the charts of Bitcoin and select altcoins and spot the critical levels to watch out for in the short term.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin has been hovering around its 20-day exponential moving average (EMA) of $17,031 for the past few days. The flat 20-day EMA and the relative strength index (RSI) near 50 do not give a clear advantage either to the bulls or the bears.