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Bitcoin (BTC) is on track for its biggest weekly gains since March, but not everyone is convinced the good times will last.

Crypto sentiment highest since early May

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that at the time of writing, BTC/USD is up over $2,000 this week — nearly 12%.

After spending several days trapped in a narrow range, the pair managed to exit to the upside, the gains accelerating overnight into July 8 to see highs of $22,401 on Bitstamp.

Those highs alone are noteworthy, coinciding with Bitcoin’s 200-week moving average (MA), an essential level in bear markets which has acted as resistance since last month.

While consolidating around $1,000 lower, Bitcoin nonetheless is showing the potential for a trend turnaround. Beating out the 200-week MA, however, will be no easy task.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) has grown stronger against its top "memecoin" rival Dogecoin (DOGE) in the last two months, in part due to the token's periodic token burning events and a flurry of project announcements that promises to boost its utility.

Why is the SHIB price rallying?

In detail, SHIB/DOGE gained a little over 40% after bouncing from 0.0001120 on May 12, its lowest level on record. 

Coin burn is the most logical explanation behind SHIB's recent rally against DOGE.

The process involves sending SHIB tokens to a wallet without a master, i.e., removing them out of circulation permanently against the total one quadrillion supply (half of which were sent to Ethereum's co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

The Shiba Inu network has burned more than 410 trillion SHIB tokens (~$4.5 billion at July 8's price) from its initial supply, according to data tracking portal ShibBurn.com.

Hope springs eternal for many crypto investors after the market saw positive price movement on July 7, alongside gains in the traditional market. 

The green day in the markets comes amid a backdrop of increasing jobless claims in the U.S., which is a possible signal that “the pressure on wages may have now peaked” according to Harris Financial Group Managing Partner Jamie Cox. According to Cox, a continuation of this trend could result in financial conditions that are “tight enough to allow the Fed to throttle back on the scale of rate increases."

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after trading near $20,400 for a majority of the day on July 7, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) spiked nearly 7% in the afternoon hours to hit a daily high of $21,860.

As the crypto faithful attempt to navigate the choppy waters of the crypto winter in search of a market bottom, here’s what several analysts are predicting could be next for Bitcoin.

The trend remains negative

Twitter user "Roman" posted the following chart noting that “Many are becoming euphoric and bullish as we have repeated similar candle patterns for the last 8 months.”

Crypto and equities markets are down, and aside from the positive news of Celsius repaying all of their debt and avoiding a massive liquidation, there are few on-the-spot reasons that are prompting investors to buy Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins.

The collapse of numerous decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, crypto investment funds and BTC trading 60% below its all-time high continue to weigh on sentiment, but a few positive tidbits of data could be a sign that the market is ready to enter a consolidation phase.

Crypto investors HODL

According to a recent survey conducted by Appinio and despite the collapse in crypto prices and the start of the bear market, “more than half (55%) of crypto investors held their investments in response to the recent crypto-asset market sell-off with just 8% selling their investments.”

This suggests that the investment conviction of a majority of crypto investors remains strong. The study also found that “33% of American investors are invested in crypto-assets,” and “40% of investors believe Bitcoin presents the best investment opportunity over the next three months.” 

American investors show resiliency

When it comes to how American investors responded to the broad pullback across financial markets, Appinio found that 65% of respondents held their investments and remained confident in their choices.