Bitcoin price analysis: BTC/USD stops within a whisker of $10,500; retreat in progress

• Bitcoin extended the end-week recovery towards $10,500 but momentum lost steam culminating in a retreat.
• Bitcoin bulls still have the grip in place supported by strong positive technical levels.

The cryptocurrency market especially the top twenty bracket is mostly a sea of a red affair. The slight recovery witnessed on Friday has fizzled out leaving a gap for exploration by the sellers. Bitcoin, for instance, approached $10,500 but formed a weekly high at $10,483.

At press time, a retreat is underway with Bitcoin bulls battling to keep the price above the confluence formed by the 50 Simple Moving Average (SMA) 4-hour and the 38.2% Fib retracement level taken between the last swing high of $12,313 and a swing low of $9,134

The immediate upside is capped by the month-long descending trendline while $10,500 remains a hard nit that must be cracked for movements towards $11,000. From a technical perspective, BTC/USD is slightly bullish.

The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD), for instance, is almost crossing onto the positive side after gradually sloping upwards from levels around -159.234. Moreover, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) is above the average after recovering from almost oversold levels this week.

BTC/USD 4-hour chart