Bitcoin (BTC) halted its latest recovery at Wednesday’s Wall Street open as US traders sold off.
Key points:
- Bitcoin nears $78,000 before the US open spoils momentum, continuing a trend from earlier in the week.
- US stock markets await Nvidia earnings amid a tense macro atmosphere.
- Bitcoin’s Coinbase Premium sees multi-month lows in a sign of “soft” US demand.
BTC price stops short of $78,000 ahead of Nvidia numbers
Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching $77,678 on Bitstamp before the US trading session sparked fresh losses.
BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Copying its moves from the week’s first two trading days, Bitcoin faced tailwinds as US market sentiment stayed bearish on the macroeconomic outlook.
The S&P 500 fell 1.3% before rebounding, with traders waiting for the week’s key potential volatility catalyst: Q1 earnings from tech company Nvidia.
On Monday, trading resource The Kobeissi Letter described the numbers as the “biggest earnings event of the quarter.”
Continuing, it noted the role of tech stocks in driving S&P 500 strength — even as the US-Iran war and associated inflation risk spooked other markets.
“A handful of tech stocks are driving the entire market,” it summarized in a post on X.
S&P 500 one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Bitcoin Coinbase Premium reflects “soft” demand
In crypto circles, attention focused on the Coinbase Premium Index, which highlighted the ongoing lack of bullish sentiment during US trading sessions.
Related: BTC price ‘bull trap’ at $76.5K? Five things to know in Bitcoin this week
The Index, which measures the difference in price between Coinbase’s BTC/USD and Binance’s BTC/USDT pairs, fell to its lowest levels since February on the day.
Commenting in one of its QuickTake blog posts, onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant said that spot Bitcoin demand “remains soft.”
“The latest Coinbase Premium Gap reading stands near -$66.8, meaning Bitcoin is trading at a lower price on Coinbase Pro’s USD pair compared with Binance’s USDT pair. This is deeper than the late-March reading of around -$62.6, when Bitcoin was trading near $68,000,” contributor Amr Taha wrote.
“The comparison is important because Bitcoin is now trading much higher, around $77,200, yet the Coinbase discount versus Binance is wider than it was when BTC was nearly $9,000 lower.”
Bitcoin Coinbase Premium gap (screenshot). Source: CryptoQuant
Others monitored familiar trend lines, including the 21-week exponential moving average (EMA).
As Cointelegraph reported, BTC/USD reclaimed that level on weekly time frames in late April, only to lose it again this week.
“Bitcoin has Weekly Closed below the 21-week EMA (green) which technically positions price to potentially turn it into new resistance on any upcoming rebound,” trader and analyst Rekt Capital told X followers on Tuesday while analyzing the weekly chart.
“Turning the 21-week EMA into new resistance would fully confirm the breakdown from it.”
BTC/USD one-week chart. Source: Rekt Capital/X