BTC key levels alongside ETH close to local high

Key points: 

• Bitcoin continued to struggle to break above $17,000.
• Next week’s release of the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI), if favorable, could provide the needed catalyst for BTC price action.
• Despite the minor bounce, BTC is still trading in an extremely tight falling wedge – 18,000 is the key level to break to the upside.
• ETH continues to look more bullish than BTC, although it too is still trading in a consolidation pattern.
• The top of the triangle comes in at 1,400 but the big resistance zone lies between 1,700 to 2,000 to the topside of ETH. On the downside, 1,000-1,100 is expected to be very decent support.

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Bitcoin continued to struggle to break above $17,000 on Jan. 4 as the trading area was "extremely tight."

BTC/USD 1H chart. Source - TradingView

Posibility of $17,000 due to CPI printing

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting $16,906 on Bitstamp, $300 above the previous day’s low.

The largest cryptocurrency benefited from a positive start to the year on Wall Street, providing a broader boost to previously flat crypto assets.

"Bitcoin traded the old market yesterday," Filbfilb, co-founder of the trading suite DecentTrader, began summarizing recent events by taking notes.

After analyzing the 12-hour chart, he believes the 50-day moving average (MA) must hold the bulls, with immediate support and resistance at $15,500 and $18,000, respectively.

Next week’s release of the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI), if favorable, could provide the needed catalyst for BTC price action.

"Bitcoin needs to hold the 50-day moving average and break out of last week's high, but it seems likely to get there, which will enter the CPI data," Filbfilb added:

“At the moment we are in the upper range of last week’s price action.”

BTC/USD annotated chart. Source - Filbfilb [Twitter]

As reported, others had hoped that by early 2023 bitcoin would have enough momentum to follow in the footsteps of stocks and gold.

The latter, trading firm QCP Capital explained that day, was due to "allocations to alternative assets earlier in the year".

A market update sent to subscribers of the Telegram channel said that XAU/USD has gained 15% in the past two months, with January being the best month of the year in history.

“Despite the minor bounce, BTC is still trading in an extremely tight falling wedge – 18,000 is the key level to break to the upside,” it continued, reiterating Filbfilb:

“In the medium-term, 28k is looking more and more key - as the Head and shoulders neckline, and 61.8% fibonacci retracement level of the $3,858 2020 low to $69,000 2021 high.”

BTC/USD annotated chart. Source - QCP Capital

Analysis believes $1,000 for Ethereum will hold

Meanwhile, a more confident performance appears to have greeted Ether, with solid support levels giving bulls some much-needed reassurance should the market dip again.

“ETH continues to look more bullish than BTC, although it too is still trading in a consolidation pattern,” wrote QCP:

“The top of the triangle comes in at 1,400 but the big resistance zone lies between 1,700 to 2,000 to the topside. On the downside we expect 1,000-1,100 to be very decent support.”

ETH/USD annotated chart. Source - QCP Capital

At the time of writing, ETH/USD is trading at $1,250 for the first time since December 16, and its daily candlestick chart since January 4 is up 3% so far.

Still, QCP is prepared to wait for months when analyzing when the bottom of the crypto market will come.

ETH/USD 1D chart. Source - TradingView

"We expect this to only happen again in October/November of this year, but remain open to an early bottom," she concluded.