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Bitcoin (BTC) circled $23,500 on Feb. 4 as bulls refused to give up support in out-of-hours trading.

Bitcoin price conjures 2020 memories

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD holding a narrow range in place since the Feb. 3 Wall Street open.

Macroeconomic data releases from the United States provided modest volatility but no overall trend change as traders bided their time heading into the weekend.

Opinions on the longer-term outlook were mixed, however, with some maintaining that there was little reason to trust that Bitcoin’s rally would continue.

“Seeing $50,000 calls already on Bitcoin and we have yet to complete a higher high and higher low market structure change,” popular trader Crypto Tony summarized in part of a tweet on the day.

In September 2022, Interchain Foundation, the team behind Cosmos’ development , introduced the Cosmos ATOM 2.0 whitepaper. The document proposed significant changes to Cosmos’s design, including a tokenomics upgrade to fund the Cosmos ecosystem development and reduce ATOM inflation.

While the whitepaper launch acted as a bullish catalyst for ATOM price, the community vote to pass the proposal eventually failed, primarily because of its enormity. Some community members wanted to take a measured approach to each development feature listed in the whitepaper, starting with Interchain Security in Q1 2023.

Interchain Security will enhance the value accrual position of ATOM as a modular chain. New blockchains will be able to borrow the security from it and pay Cosmos Hub validators. 

Despite the rejection of the Cosmos 2.0 whitepaper, the team continues to work on the upgrades mentioned in it. The other improvements in tokenomics will be introduced as a separate proposal to the Cosmos community.

The first week of February witnessed a technical bullish breakout in ATOM’s price. If buyers continue to accumulate, there’s a solid chance of a short-to-medium trade rally.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) rally in 2023 has been boosted by expectations that the United States Federal Reserve will slow down the pace of its rate hikes as inflation has started cooling down. Some even anticipate a rate cut by the end of the year. That assumption received a jolt on Feb.3 when the U.S. employment data for January beat expectations and unemployment hit its lowest level since May 1969.

If markets do not react negatively to news perceived as bearish, it’s a sign that the sentiment has turned positive. Traders may then shift their focus to the next important economic data release. Trading firm QCP Capital said in its latest market update that the Consumer Price Index print on Feb. 14 could move markets. They believe the risks to the data are to the upside.

The current crypto bear market seems to have driven the institutional investors to the sidelines. According to a new survey conducted by JPMorgan, 72% of institutional traders said they do not plan to “trade crypto/digital coins” in 2023. Only 14% of the respondents showed an inclination to trade this year.

Will Bitcoin and altcoins witness profit booking in the near term? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin bounced off the $22,800 support on Feb. 1, indicating that bulls are buying the dips to this level. The bulls pushed the price above $24,000 on Feb. 2 but they could not sustain the higher levels.