Bitcoin bulls defend $23K amid warning bear market rally 'alive and well'

cointelegraph.com:

Bitcoin (BTC) tested $23,000 as support on the Aug. 1 Wall Street open with key moving averages in focus. 

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as bulls and bears battled for control amid a tight trading range.

Bitcoin had inspired with its highest weekly close since mid-June the day prior, with its monthly candle also producing the biggest gains since before last year's $69,000 all-time highs.

Among analysts and traders, however, it was the market's ability to remain higher for several more candles that was important.

Despite reclaiming important trendlines such as the 200-week moving average (MA) and realized price, Bitcoin would not be out of the woods until it began producing whole weekly candles without retests of those levels.

"The Bear Market Rally is still alive and well," on-chain analytics resource Material Indicators explained on the day.

As such, $22,880 and $21,965 were essential lines to hold for bulls and increasingly close to spot price.

Fellow trader and analyst Rekt Capital nonetheless forecast that Bitcoin would naturally attempt to retest the 200-week MA as support in the short term.

The new #BTC Weekly Close above the 200-week MA means that price will try to retest this MA as new support this weekBTC already held the MA as support last week, as evidenced by the downside wickNow it will try to hold it for a second consecutive week$BTC #Crypto #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/350VYgi825

Commenting on price strength, however, he noted that the 200-week MA reclaim was the first such occurrence after an "extended downtrend" since the March 2020 COVID-19 crash.

"Bitcoin may be struggling to break above the $24,000 level, but its weekly candle finally closed above the 200-week moving average