Bitcoin, the world’s largest and most popular cryptocurrency remain under pressure and struggling to find upside momentum amid lingering concerns over the aggressive central bank tightening to bring inflation back under control. $BTCUSD has been moving in a tight range between $20,500 and $18,200 since September 15, 2022. The market is likely to encounter a price breakout if it continues to fluctuate in a tight range. However, as of this writing, the crypto pair slightly recovered from the weekly lows.
Moving ahead, Bitcoin traders and investors should closely monitor the economic releases this week, U.S. Federal Reserve minutes and key US inflation data for clues on the pace of future interest rate hikes.
From a short-term technical perspective, the 18,800 area of confluence has recently been held as a firm support, failure to defend the mentioned support levels has the potential to drag the pair further towards the 18,000-support zone. On the upper side, in case the pair manages to settle above 19,700, it will head towards the next resistance level at 20,500.