Michaël van de Poppe: Bitcoin stuck in a range

Bitcoin is barely moving. The price is hovering around $63.000 and analyst Michaël van de Poppe sees little reason to trade. According to him, the market is in a narrow range with low volatility, and overtrading is now the biggest risk. He does point to a possible turning point: if liquidity is picked up at the bottom, it could trigger a recovery move.

Bitcoin is available at OKX and Bybit.

In short:

• Bitcoin trades around $63.000 with minimal price movement and low volatility
• Michaël van de Poppe sees a chance of an upward reversal if liquidity is picked up at the bottom
• He advises accumulating for the long term rather than actively trading

Market stuck in narrow range

At the time of writing, Bitcoin stands at $63.000, a rise of 0.4% in the past 24 hours. That can hardly be called a movement. The market has been in a quiet phase for some time, which is also visible in the ADX indicator, which reached its lowest level in two years.

On 15 August, Van de Poppe shares an analysis in which he states that nothing is simply happening in the Bitcoin market. He points out that liquidity has been collected at the bottom several times and that the market has shown it does not want to decline further. According to him, that pattern increases the likelihood that the low has already been set.

Upward move possible, but not guaranteed

The analyst sees a scenario in which liquidity at the bottom, the so-called long side liquidity, is picked up. That could set an upward move in motion in which sellers with short positions are stopped out. The longer the market stays higher in the meantime, the greater the chance that the bottom is already behind us, says Van de Poppe.

Yet there are also signals weighing on the market. For instance, the Bitcoin ETF market saw an outflow of $131 million on 13 August. Moreover, Bitcoin barely reacted to positive inflation news, indicating that the market is currently picking up few external stimuli.

Advice: accumulate, do not overtrade

Van de Poppe advises investors to use the quiet period to gradually buy more for the long term, rather than trying to take advantage of short-term price movements. With a limited range and low volatility, overtrading is, in his view, the greatest danger.

Notably, whales recently deposited a record amount of Bitcoin on Binance, raising concerns among some analysts about possible selling pressure. Whether the market moves towards the resistance around $65.800 or $73.674, or instead seeks the support levels around $61.000, depends heavily on how liquidity is distributed in the coming weeks.