The recent pause in US Fed rate hikes triggered a pivot to stocks, while Bitcoin bulls remain skittish despite the dismissal of Binance.US’s temporary restraining order by United States district court Judge Amy Berman Jackson. Although Bitcoin gained 6.5% after successfully defending the $26,300 level, its sentiment is slightly bearish as it declined by 12.7% in the last two months.
The global regulatory environment has also been harmful to cryptocurrency prices, with the SEC litigating with the two leading global exchanges and trying to unilaterally label which altcoins it views as securities. The European Union also signed the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations into law on May 31, which means crypto businesses have set timelines to comply with MiCA’s requirements.
Despite this negative regulatory pressure, professional traders did not flip bearish according to Bitcoin derivatives metrics, even though Bitcoin bulls lack confidence to leverage long positions using margin and futures markets. While OKX traders’ margin-lending ratio has been declining since June 10, favoring stablecoin lending, Binance’s top traders reduced their long-to-short ratio to 1.18 on June 15 but subsequently added longs as the indicator stands at 1.25.
However, Bitcoin’s price gains are capped despite resilience in derivative metrics, lacking momentum as investors’ attention has shifted to the stock market. JPMorgan strategists expect the rally to come under pressure in the second half of 2023 if growth stalls in absolute terms. Furthermore, bears have the upper hand as the 20-day resistance at $27,500 strengthens, limiting the short-term upside to a mere 3.8%.
In conclusion, this article emphasizes that every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice.