Bitcoin Price Analysis: BTC bulls may hit a brick wall on approach to $9,800

• Bitcoin regains ground, but the upside momentum is slow.
• A cluster of large positions around $9,800 may push the price back inside the range.

Bitcoin (BTC) extended the recovery to trade at $9,750 at the time of writing. The first digital asset bottomed at $9,300 on February 19 amid massive sell-off and managed to regain some ground since that time. However, it is still trading below the local resistance zone created by the short-term downside trendline at $9,850 and a combination of SMA50 and SMA100 4-hour above $9,900. 

BTC/USD: Technical picture

Notably, this resistance may be a hard nut to crack for the bulls as there is a cluster of addresses with positions around this level, Intotheblock experts write.  

A look at the IOMAP model for #Bitcoin shows 1m addresses with positions around the $9800 mark. This could be seen as the level of resistance for $BTC to get to $10,000.00 as a percentage of investors that previously bought at this price may be looking to break-even.

Considering the upward-looking RSI on the intraday charts, BTC/USD may continue the recovery towards the above-said resistance levels. Once they are out of the way, psychological $10,000 will come into focus. A sustainable move above this area is needed to improve the short-term technical picture and bring Bitcoin back inside the bullish trend. 

The next resistance lies with $10,200, reinforced by 50% Fibo retracement, and $10,300. Meanwhile $10,500 is the critical barrier, which separates us from a strong bullish rally. 

BTC/USD 4-hour chart