Bitcoin showing signs of ‘short-term fatigue’ near $50k ahead of possible continuation

Bitcoin failed to break the $50,000 price tag during weekend trading and is beginning to flag signs of profit-taking in the short term. The world’s largest crypto by market cap is down 2.5% over a 24-hour period and is currently changing hands for around $45,892, CoinDesk data shows.

Still, bitcoin (BTC, -3%) is up 56% in year-to-date returns courtesy of a strong showing by bullish traders throughout the first half of August which saw prices rise from $38,000 on Aug. 4 to around $48,190 on Saturday.

“The price has rebounded strongly now, but this upward move is showing some signs of short-term fatigue,” said Simon Peters, market analyst at trading platform eToro. “We could see a small retracement down to lower prices before the prevailing trend reasserts itself.”

BTCUSD Daily Chart

Source: TradingView

Low levels of daily trading volume persist as bitcoin struggles to edge higher while short positions are building, according to Datamish data, pointing toward a return to lower supports near $44,000.

“Even though the trend has flipped bullish, a pullback is to be expected before continuation,” said Marcus Sotiriou, sales trader at U.K.-based digital asset brokerage firm GlobalBlock. “This is because there has been declining volume with an increase in price, as well as a bearish divergence in the RSI indicator on the daily time frame.”

Other notable cryptos in the top 20 by market capitalization over a 24-hour period are mixed with polkadot (DOT, +8.13%), solana and terra posting the highest gains while ether (ETH, -3.43%), XRP (-8.87%), and stellar (XLM, -7.76%) have shed the most over the same period.