Wild Weekend for Bitcoin Price? US Lockdown Loosens on Memorial Day

Bitcoin’s recovery to $10,000 is currently hindered by resistance at the 20-MA and with a holiday weekend coming up traders brace for volatility.

Since dropping below the ascending channel trendline to $8,815 on May 21, Bitcoin (BTC) price has recovered 4.78%. BTC/USD continues to meet resistance at the 20-day moving average, obstructing traders’ desire to push the price above $9,300. 

Crypto market weekly price chart. Source: Coin360

In the United States, this weekend includes the Memorial Day holiday, meaning traditional markets will be closed on Monday and the crypto market will be left to its own devices. 

Typically trading volume thins on weekends so investors who find time to step away from the family BBQ will be watching to see whether or not larger players exploit the market to push the price of the top-ranked asset on CoinMarketCap in a new direction. 

BTC USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

In the 4-hour chart, we can see Bitcoin’s price marching along the gradient of the ascending channel trendline by painting higher lows. The price continues to meet resistance at the 20-MA of the Bollinger Band indicator but traders will also notice that there is a bull cross on the MACD and the indicator’s histogram has printed a green bar above 0. 

The RSI is also below the neutral zone (50), currently angled downward at 45. In situations such as these, purchasing volume is the key signal to watch, and at the time of writing, both buy and sell volume have screeched to a halt. Volume typically precedes price so keeping a close eye on increases in buy or sell volume on the shorter timeframes will be the tell. 

The neutral Doji candle also shows buyers and sellers in equal contention on the direction of the price and based on the current setup, Bitcoin could either drop to the lower Bollinger Band arm at $8,865 where there are likely to be buyers. 

Alternatively, a surge above the 20-MA would allow the price to run to $9,600 by exploiting the VPVR volume gap created by the swift fall from $9,634 to $8,820 on May 21. 

BTC USD 1-month chart. Source: TradingView

On May 22, Cointelegraph contributor filbfilb warned that Bitcoin price only has one week to make a decisive move that will define whether Bitcoin makes a decisive move that favors bulls or bears. filbfilb posted the above chart and explained that: 

The monthly chart of Bitcoin clearly demonstrates that Bitcoin has a long-term challenge to overcome, which is reclaiming the $10K handle. But more specifically, it must record a $9,300 monthly close that has eluded Bitcoin for the last 10 months, which sets the tone for the current price action.

Bitcoin daily price chart. Source: Coin360

As Bitcoin mounted a slow recovery on Friday, many altcoins took advantage of the sideways trading by pulling off strong double-digit rallies. 

OmiseGo (OMG) continued its strong upside move for a second day by gaining 14.92%. Cardano (ADA) followed suit by adding 7.27%, and Neo (NEO) moved higher with a 7.66% gain. 

According to CoinMarketCap, the overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $257.9 billion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 66.1%.