• Bitcoin (BTC) traded back below $27,000 on May 19 as analysis flagged large-volume trades pressuring price.
• Market expectations of an interest rate hike by the United States Federal Reserve in June increased due to low jobless claims data.
• Owners of bid and ask liquidity were found to be manipulating BTC prices on short timeframes.
Bitcoin Price Retests Key Support
On May 19, Bitcoin (BTC) traded back below the $27,000 mark as analysis showed there were large-volume trades that put pressure on its price. The market anticipated an interest rate hike by the United States Federal Reserve in June thanks to low jobless claims data.
Fed Rate Hike Fears Steal $27K from Bitcoin
The Fed’s board member Philip Jefferson spoke of inflation being too high but also that GDP has slowed considerably this year because of higher interest rates than what it was a year ago. According to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, the odds of the Fed pausing its hiking cycle next month dropped from 95% to 62%.
Whales Manipulate Arena with Liquidity
Monitoring resources observed owners of bid and ask liquidity placing trades to manipulate Bitcoin prices on short timeframes. As more people priced in potential for another rate hike, a ladder of bids was rugged and price moved to prior support around $26,500; however, a sell wall was quickly placed to suppress the price further. Furthermore, Bitcoin performed a retest of its 100-day moving average for the third time in six days.
Bitcoin Bulls Fail To Stem Fresh Losses
Despite attempts by Bitcoin bulls trying their best to stem fresh losses, they were unable to prevent BTC price abandoning prior strength and whales continuing their manipulation with liquidity through trading behavior on short timeframes. As such, BTC/USD hit lows at $26,380 before recovering slightly later in the day up until Wall Street’s opening hours for that week.
Conclusion
Overall, it appears that expectations for an upcoming interest rate hike have been putting pressure on Bitcoin prices while opportunistic whales have been manipulating them with liquidity through trading behavior on short timeframes which is why BTC/USD went down below $27K and hit lows at around 26K before bouncing back up again slightly later in the day.