BTC price returns to $43K — 5 things to watch in Bitcoin this week

Bitcoin (BTC) is in a fighting mood this week as the weekly close buoys bulls’ cause and wipes out several weeks of downside — can it continue higher?

After challenging $42,000 over the weekend, there was a cautious sense of optimism as higher levels remained in play. Sunday saw a fresh push, with overnight progress attacking $43,000 before fresh consolidation.

With Monday’s Wall Street open primed to deliver more of the turbulence in big tech stocks seen late last week, the environment for crypto traders is an interesting one in February.

With its notable positive correlation, Bitcoin is thus sensitive to moves up and down — but equities refuse to move unanimously in the same direction.

Looking for guidance, hodlers will still remember January’s lows, and these are also fresh in the mind of analysts who have not discounted the possibility of returning to $30,000.

With something of a week of reckoning for its latest gains ahead, Cointelegraph takes a look at the Bitcoin market and five forces at play that could help shape where BTC price action heads next.

Bitcoin dodges a major breakdown

The weekend was no match for Bitcoin’s newfound bullishness despite its typically lower volume providing fertile ground for both “fakeouts” and “fakedowns.”

$40,000 held as support, and analysts were keen to see $41,000 established as a longer-term basis going forward.

“Here’s how I see things. As long as $BTC holds 39k (as prev stated) then yearly open up next,” trader and analyst Pentoshi summarized Sunday.

“Imo 80% of alts will lag, 20% will lead/follow.”

The yearly open for 2022 stands at around $46,200, a price level that’s getting closer after BTC/USD broke through its weekend resistance zone to hit local highs of $43,070 on Bitstamp.

Fellow analyst and trader Credible Crypto believes that the latest action could provide proof that Bitcoin is beginning its fifth in a series of impulse moves stretching back several years.

My thoughts on $BTC dominance at this time. Long story short- $BTC outperforms during initial stages of our final 5th wave impulse, alts steal the show after that as $BTC tops, dominance makes a new all time low before this is all over. pic.twitter.com/mjklIIN444

— Credible Crypto (@CredibleCrypto) February 2, 2022

Should that be the case, it is likely that altcoins will initially lose the limelight to BTC, he added, as with classic bull run performance.

“If my thesis is correct and $BTC is indeed starting it’s final 5th wave here, expect $BTC to steal the show, pump aggressively, alts to take an initial hit, but then rally/catch up just like we saw during the last two impulses (3-14k and 12-65k),” he explained.

Looking to the downside, whales may hold the answer. Data from on-chain monitoring resource Whalemap shows that the area around $38,000 remains a significant zone of interest for whales, who last week began adding to their positions there.

Closest on-chain supports in case #BTC…