Bitcoin held steady above $27,000 in European morning hours on Wednesday, with broader crypto markets barely moving as some traders pointed to central bank policy decisions in the coming days before expecting any movement.
The bitcoin (BTC) price encountered resistance at $27,400 earlier in the day, failing to break above the 50-day moving average. In the past 24 hours, ether (ETH) lost 0.2%, bnb fell 0.6% and Cardano’s ada (ADA) and dogecoin (DOGE) were little changed.
The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI), a weighted basket of hundreds of tokens, gained 0.44%.
A moving average (MA) is an indicator commonly used in technical analysis, and a rising moving average indicates an asset is in an uptrend, while a declining moving average indicates a downtrend.
Traders are likely waiting on key central bank interest-rate decisions in the coming days before deploying capital – which could explain the market’s current lull, Alex Kuptsikevich, a senior market analyst at FxPro, told CoinDesk in a note.
“All financial markets have taken a wait-and-see approach ahead of monetary policy decisions in the U.S., Switzerland, the U.K. and Japan,” Kuptsikevich said, adding that he remained bearish.
The Federal Reserve will announce its rate decision on Wednesday at 14:00 ET (18:00 UTC) and the Bank of England will do the same at 12:00 BST (13:00 UTC) on Thursday. The Swiss rate decision is also due Thursday, and Japan’s is on Friday.
“The situation for bitcoin is bearish if one looks solely at the technical picture on the chart. The corrective bounce in BTC is formally over; the price has fallen below the moving averages, and the short-term oversold condition is complete,” he said.
Analysts at crypto services platform Matrixport, however, said they expect crypto markets to turn bullish in the fourth quarter, citing historical seasonality.
“Q4 traditionally represents Bitcoin’s strongest quarter, with an average of +35% return over the past nine years,” Matrixport analysts wrote in a Wednesday note to clients. “If history is any guide, Bitcoin could reach $37,000 by year-end.”
