Bitcoin (BTC) bounced off a predicted floor on June 4 as the dust settled on the latest market collision with Elon Musk.
BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView
Bitcoiners poke fun at Musk’s “break-up”
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView tracked BTC/USD as the pair recovered to levels nearer $37,000 on Friday.
Previous strength this week, which had seen a push toward $40,000, abruptly ended in defeat after Musk released another cryptic tweet. In it, the Tesla CEO appeared to suggest that he had moved on from Bitcoin to some form of alternative.
The market sold off, but the biggest casualties this time were altcoin traders. Bitcoin only fell by $2,000 — significantly less than during other episodes involving Musk’s tweets.
For popular trader Crypto Ed, who predicted that Bitcoin would need to hit $36,000 again anyway before continuing higher, the bottom was now in.
“Just need to reclaim some levels and we’re good to go again,” he said in comments on the market on Friday.
Most reactions among Bitcoiners, however, were tongue-in-cheek, part of a wider narrative that reminds spectators that Musk is of no importance to Bitcoin’s strength.
Who forgot to invite Elon to the #Bitcoin conference?
— David Gokhshtein (@davidgokhshtein) June 4, 2021
Elon’s #Bitcoin tweets are a result of being single-handedly destroyed by Ford, the company that made the Taurus and Pinto, with their F-150 Lightning. Sorry you got destroyed Elon but don’t take it out on Bitcoin.
— grubles (@notgrubles) June 4, 2021
Short-term barriers to a recovery nonetheless remained. Of particular interest to traders were funding rates on the day, these flipping positive after previously favoring longs.
In an ironic twist, Musk’s favorite token, Dogecoin (DOGE), lost more than most in the top fifty cryptocurrencies by market cap, trading down 14% at the time of writing.
DOGE/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bittrex). Source: TradingView
Bloomberg favors $100,000 over $20,000
As ever, seasoned market participants called for a longer-term perspective on Bitcoin.
Veteran trader Peter Brandt, who said that $21,000 would be the ultimate floor for BTC/USD under current circumstances, was firmly in favor of a bullish continuation.
“Why would someone bail out of non-leveraged longs when the market already had 80% of worst-case drop?” he argued earlier in the week.
Another publicly bullish opinion came from Bloomberg Intelligence, which in its latest monthly report described cryptocurrencies en masse as “discounted and refreshed.”
“Bitcoin is more likely to resume appreciating toward $100,000 resistance rather than sustaining below $20,000,” it summarized.
Fundamentals remained stable for Bitcoin, with hash rate — and therefore miners — unresponsive to Musk.