Bitcoin Battles Its Latest Key Reclaim Target With $80,000 on the Radar

Bitcoin open interest sparked a prediction of high BTC price volatility to come as $70,000 remained the bulls’ key reclaim level.

Bitcoin (BTC) traded sideways on Wednesday as traders weighed geopolitical risk and waited for a break from its recent range.

Key points:

• Bitcoin traders are waiting for the end of rangebound price action, with the focus on $70,000.

• An optimistic forecast says that the low $80,000 zone could come back into play by the end of March.

• Open interest trends suggest heightened BTC price volatility next.

Bitcoin struggles to cement key springboard level

Data from TradingView showed a flat BTC price on the day, with trading centered around $70,000.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

After failing to break out of its local trading range, BTC/USD looked increasingly devoid of bullish cues as traders stayed wary of price breakdowns.

“Not much has changed, price is still consolidating inside the range,” trader Cryptorphic told X followers in their latest analysis.

BTC/USDT one-day chart. Source: Cryptorphic/X

Trader Killa flagged areas of high potential liquidations as the next short-term price targets.

“If we start pushing down toward the monthly open and weekly open around $66K–$66.9K, there’s a strong likelihood that the $64K liquidity pool gets swept,” they explained on the day.

BTC liquidation heatmap. Source: Killa/X

For trader and analyst Mark Cullen, meanwhile, there was reason to hope for a move higher if bulls could cement $70,000 as support.

“70K is critical, $BTC needs to get back above and hold for another attempt at a range break out. If it can do that then high 70K’s / low 80K’s will be on the cards before the end of the month,” he summarized.

BTC/USD four-hour chart. Source: Mark Cullen/X

BTC price may see “highly volatile environment”

Earlier, Cointelegraph reported that significant resistance is expected to halt any BTC price advances beyond the $70,000 mark.

Related: Bitcoin permabull Arthur Hayes says he wouldn’t bet $1 on BTC right now

Many market participants continue to expect new macro lows to result from the current rangebound structure, with these currently as low as $50,000 or less.

Examining open interest (OI) on Bitcoin futures markets, BorisD, a contributor at onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant, warned of ongoing volatility to come.

“Looking at the most recent days, the 30-day Open Interest change has entered a strong recovery phase. This suggests that new positions are being added back into the market and that volatility is likely to increase over the next few weeks,” he wrote in a “Quicktake” blog post on Tuesday.

Bitcoin futures aggregated OI 30-day % change. Source: CryptoQuant

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