Autor Cointelegraph By William Suberg

Bitcoin (BTC) hit its lowest level in over two months later on May 5 as Wall Street trading saw volatility return with a bang.BTC/USD 1-day candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingViewDXY celebrates as stocks, crypto tumbleData from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView painted an unsettling picture for hodlers as BTC/USD fell to $36,520 on Bitstamp.Capping losses, which totaled 8.3% at one point, Bitcoin only bounced at a price last seen on Feb. 24 this year.As Cointelegraph reported, the performance had come in tandem with mayhem in U.S. markets as equities gave up previous gains to flip bearish on the economic outlook. The Federal Reserve’s “priced in” rate hikes thus appeared to have been something of a red herring.”BTC breaks below 37K after a nasty bull trap yesterday. Good lesson to many who continue to insist on fighting the trend,” popular trader Cheds reacted on the day.At the time of writing, BTC/USD traded at around $37,000, having recouped a modest portion of the ground given up in the first two hours of the Wall Street session. Comparatively, the Nasdaq 100 was 4.5% down and the S&P 500 3.2%.Even news that Blockchain protocol Terra had purchased a giant $1.5 billion of BTC to back its TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin failed to lift the mood.”Can you imagine how disastrous this will be for central bank credibility (trust in the fiat system) if this equity market keeps unwinding in the coming weeks and they need to aggressively reverse policy within a month or two. Trust is already in shambles…,” podcast host Preston Pysh commented as relative stability returned.The action was a boon for the U.S. dollar, meanwhile, as shown in the U.S. dollar index (DXY) reversing earlier losses to retest its highest levels in twenty years.DXY stood at near 104 at the time of writing, up 1.2% on the day.U.S. dollar index (DXY) 1-hour candle chart. Source: TradingViewBulls feel the pressure most since JanuaryAmid the chaos, previous bullish theories on BTC covering longer timeframes received a major test of their own.Related: ‘More likely’ BTC price will hit $100K before Bitcoin sweeps $30K lows, forecast saysAmong them was that based on Bitcoin’s on-balance volume (OBV).OBV, a cumulative volume measure used to identify buying and selling pressure, has, in fact, been calling for BTC price upside since the $32,000 lows in January, popular Twitter account IncomeSharks claimed earlier on May 5.A series of higher lows since had given the impression that serious downside could be averted based on OBV data.Here’s your #Bitcoin roadmap. OBV hasn’t one gone bearish since January. That’s where it said the bottom was in. We keep making higher highs and higher low. This is an uptrend after a correction. https://t.co/gCq9p3CBjt— IncomeSharks (@IncomeSharks) May 5, 2022As Cointelegraph reported, however, price targets of $30,000 or lower in the coming months only increased in the past few weeks.The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Bitcoin (BTC) consolidated below $40,000 on May 5 after U.S. economic policy excitement saw a  spike to one-week highs.BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingViewFed sparks little crypto reactionData from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView confirmed an overnight peak of $40,050 on Bitstamp following comments from the Federal Reserve and Chair Jerome Powell.The U.S. central bank had conformed to market expectations with a 0.5% key rate hike, also suggesting that similar repeat hikes would follow.With that, a modest market rally left Bitcoin eerily lacking volatility in what was a strong contrast to previous Fed pronouncements on topics such as inflation.While many expected risk assets en masse — including crypto — to deflate under the new policy, not everyone believed that such a scenario would cause investors maximum discomfort.”With so many people calling for melt ups and melt downs, maybe the pain trade is to chop sideways in risk assets for a long time,” economist Lyn Alden argued.Bitcoin circles likewise were not expecting major trend changes. Ben Lilly, a token economist at Jarvis Labs, highlighted low funding rates on BTC derivatives markets. “Market saw some relief with Powell’s comments. But will it continue for the crypto market? To start, funding rates have been negative for a long period of time. This tends to happen at range lows,” he wrote in a series of tweets.”A good structure for any upward momentum that begins here.”Lilly added, however, that a lack of accumulation from whales at current price levels was “not what we hoped to see.””Max pain” for Bitcoin still far awayFocusing on lower timeframes, popular trader Crypto Ed held out for a fresh push above the $40,000 mark on May 5.Related: Bitcoin pushes to $40K, but are bulls strong enough to win Friday’s $735M options expiry?For him, BTC/USD was in line to hit $40,800, and while there were “plenty of reasons” to discount a more significant climb, it was still an option.2/2 No, this is not a bold call for $43.5k in 1 go and before end of the week. Will explain the chart above in today’s video. This is the most ideal scenario while there are plenty of reasons to think this is impossible.Will try to do YT before 10am, otherwise early afternoon— Ed_NL (@Crypto_Ed_NL) May 5, 2022In terms of BTC price capitulation scenarios, meanwhile, on-chain monitoring resource Whalemap repeated its previous assertion that the area between $25,000 and $27,000 would constitute “max pain” for Bitcoin hodlers.”A lot of liquidity and stop losses are stacked there,” it explained as part of Twitter comments.BTC/USD annotated chart. Source: Whalemap/ TwitterThe views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.