Bitcoin slips to $84,200 but holds its range, keeping stair-step pattern intact
In brief
- Bitcoin fell to $84,200 Wednesday from near $86,500 Tuesday, according to CoinDesk data.
- BTC stayed inside the roughly $83,000 to $87,000 range it has held for two weeks.
- Giottus CEO Vikram Subburaj said the decline doesn't invalidate bitcoin's stair-step rise.
- FxPro's Alex Kuptsikevich sees support near $84,000, with $80,000 below if it breaks.
How the staircase formed
Since July, bitcoin has climbed in a series of flat ranges, each higher than the last (that's CoinDesk's framing, and it's a clean way to read the chart). From mid-July to Aug. 18, it traded between roughly $62,000 and $67,000. Then it jumped 21% in three days.
The next step ran from late August to mid-September, between about $76,000 and $81,500. Another sudden move followed, a 6.6% gain from Sept. 19 to Sept. 21. Since then, bitcoin has held between about $83,000 and $87,000.
That's three steps, each built on the one below it.
Where the staircase breaks
So what would end it? CoinDesk flagged the key downside level near $83,000 and said a clear break below there would end the staircase, at least for now.
"The October 7 decline does not invalidate Bitcoin's stair-step rise," Vikram Subburaj, CEO of Indian crypto exchange Giottus, told CoinDesk.
Subburaj said that if $83,000 holds, it would show sellers can't force the price back into its previous trading band. A sustained break below $82,000 to $83,000, he said, would signal that the September breakout has failed and would bring $80,000 to $81,500 back into play.
A slightly tighter read from FxPro
Not every analyst draws the line in the same spot. Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at FxPro, said support is somewhat higher, around $84,000, and that a break below it would open the way to $80,000.
At the time of CoinDesk's report, BTC was trading near $84,300. Both analysts' levels ($84,000 for Kuptsikevich, $83,000 for Subburaj) sit below that price, and Wednesday's $84,200 low didn't take out either one.
These are analyst views on where support sits, not a call on where the market goes next.
Neither line has broken yet.
Frequently asked questions
What is bitcoin's stair-step pattern?
Since July, bitcoin has climbed in a series of flat ranges, each higher than the last, according to CoinDesk. It traded between roughly $62,000 and $67,000 until Aug. 18, then between about $76,000 and $81,500, and since late September between about $83,000 and $87,000.
What price level would break bitcoin's stair-step trend?
CoinDesk identified the key downside level as near $83,000. Giottus CEO Vikram Subburaj said a sustained break below $82,000 to $83,000 would signal the September breakout had failed, while FxPro's Alex Kuptsikevich put support around $84,000, with $80,000 below.
