Bitcoin faced a new wave of selling pressure after the Wall Street opening on December 15, falling below the $41,700 mark. At the time of writing this article, Bitcoin is trading at $42,108, and data from TradingView indicates that the BTC/USD pair has experienced a drop of over $1,300 or 3.2% during the day.
What’s Happening on the Bitcoin Front?
Recovering from sudden volatile movements on December 14, Bitcoin could not maintain its position at the $43,000 level due to selling pressure from investors. The weakness in the Bitcoin price coincided with news that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected a request from the major exchange Coinbase to revise crypto regulations. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler made the following statement:
“Today the Commission has denied a rule-making petition on behalf of Coinbase Global, Inc. I am pleased to support the Commission’s decision for three reasons. First, current laws and regulations also apply to crypto securities markets. Second, the SEC is also addressing crypto securities markets through rule-making. Third, it is important to maintain the Commission’s discretion in setting its own rule-making priorities.”
The SEC is already involved in the current crypto market process, thanks to expectations that it will approve the first U.S. Bitcoin spot price exchange-traded fund services (ETF) at the start of 2024. In an interview given to Bloomberg on December 13, Gensler acknowledged the recent legal process associated with the institution’s repeated rejections of Bitcoin spot ETF applications.
Analyzing the latest state of the order books for the BTC/USD pair, popular investor Skew noted an increase in bid support around the $41,000 level. Skew shared his thoughts on the matter with the following statement:
“The increasing bid depth around $41,000 is going to be interesting from here on. The active supply is around $44,000.”
Whale Purchases Continue
Amid these developments, Keith Alan, founding partner of the trade data source Material Indicators, pointed to an ongoing struggle to turn an important weekly level into support. This step came in the form of the 0.5 Fibonacci retracement line, which is one of the few key barriers to cross on the way to the all-time high of $69,000, near the $42,500 level.
Material Indicators also noted that large-volume investors increased their buying activity during this period, stating:
“Mega Whales are buying and trying to reclaim the $42,000 level.”
