Bitcoin price is back on the rise after three days of consolidation around the 200-DMA. The bearish momentum was capped by the $45,500 area that eventually pushed the coin above $49,000. The BTC/USD pair extended gains to nearly one-week highs around $49,300 before retreating marginally.
It looks like the mentioned local highs, at the 20-DMA point, are deterring bulls for the time being. As such, price could struggle to overcome this immediate barrier in the near term. Anyway, the recent ascent points to an end of consolidation phase, despite the upside potential possibly being limited.
In part, the rally was triggered by the rising Turkish lira that boosted investors’ confidence across the markets. The lira jumped as much as 40% against the US dollar after Turkey’s president announced sweeping measures to protect consumers and attract lira investors.
In the wider picture, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization needs to overcome the 20-week SMA, currently at $52,500, in order to shrug off the recent weakness and retarget the $55,000 figure.
Should Bitcoin avoid a deep sell-off ahead of the New Year holidays and settle above the mentioned moving average, there is a chance that the price may try to regain the $60,000 hurdle and thus turn positive on the monthly charts.
In the immediate term, it looks like price would stay around $50,000 before deciding on its further direction.