Ethereum looks to end 18-month losing streak vs. Bitcoin

Bitcoin is not out of the woods when it comes to selling, as a BTC price drop to near $40,000 further unnerves traders.

Bitcoin (BTC) stayed near monthly lows into the Jan. 20 Wall Street open as Ether (ETH) faced key resistance.

Bitcoin faces “staggering” sell-side pressure

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView tracked ongoing BTC price weakness after a trip to $40,600 overnight.

This marked Bitcoin’s lowest levels since Dec. 18 amid an atmosphere of nerves as bulls repeatedly failed to reclaim lost ground.

Analyzing the status quo, Michaël van de Poppe, founder and CEO of MN Trading, joined a popular narrative calling for a BTC price floor in the mid-$30,000 zone.

“Perhaps we’re there already for Bitcoin, but it seems likely that we’ll test lower before we can have a reversal back up,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

“My personal interest is between $36-40K to be accumulating more into Bitcoin. The range remains defined.”

Popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital continued the theory, arguing that Bitcoin was now fulfilling classic moves normally seen before block subsidy halvings. As Cointelegraph reported, this calls for a retreat over the coming month before the halving event in April.

#BTC

It’s happening$BTC #Crypto #Bitcoin https://t.co/c1HsYIcuya pic.twitter.com/dAUTcbV3dz

— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) January 19, 2024

Meanwhile, salesalso spiked during the latest dip, with a giant batch of 59,000 BTC moving on-chain for the first time in the last three to six months.

As noted by popular social media commentator Ali on X, these coins had an average acquisition cost of $26,000, resulting in a realized profit of nearly $900 million.

A staggering 59,000 $BTC, initially purchased 3-6 months ago at an average price of $26,000, was recently sold, netting an impressive 57.69% profit. This equates to a total gain of around $885 million! pic.twitter.com/cxubNOTFdQ

— Ali (@ali_charts) January 19, 2024

Previously, research also attributed the comedown from $49,000 last week to whale selling.

Crunch time for ETH strength as faith builds

Turning to altcoins, it was ETH/BTC on the radar as the pair faced a long-term downward trendline.

Related: Bitcoin daily RSI hits 4-month lows, with BTC price still up 70%

Having made swift advances against Bitcoin since last week, Ether passed 0.06 BTC before consolidating near that level, its highest since April 2022.

“This consolidation is occurring at a resistance trendline, above the 200-day moving average cloud,” Caleb Franzen, senior analyst at Cubic Analytics, wrote in part of his latest X analysis.

An accompanying chart showed the trendline in place as resistance since September 2022.

Referencing other data, Franzen earlier this week predicted that ETH/USD would continue to beat BTC/USD going forward.

ETH is poised to outperform #BTC going forward.
(Fun fact: that’s very bullish for BTC)

The 18-month Williams%R oscillator for $ETHBTC is leaving the oversold threshold (lower-bound) for the first time since February 2020.

It gained +250% after that.

Bullish for all of crypto. pic.twitter.com/eSTGLOjTIW

— Caleb Franzen (@CalebFranzen) January 17, 2024

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.