Bitcoin Price Analysis: Traders position for BTC/USD growth after the halving

• The positioning on cryptocurrency exchanges implies that traders bet on the upcoming bullish trend.
• The initial resistance is created by $9,500, while the ultimate barrier is $10,000.

Bitcoin bottomed at $3,886 on March 13 and has been on recovery track ever since. The first digital coin increased by over 100% from the recent low, though it is still below the highest level of 2020 reached on February 13 at $10,511. Despite the sharp sell-off in March, Bitcoin has been able to outperform gold and stocks by gaining nearly 30% since the beginning of the year.  

The upcoming block reduction known as halving is less than five days away with the vast majority of traders and investors bet on Bitcoin’s steady growth after the event. 

According to the BitMEX positioning data, longs show 78% over shorts. The total open interest in ling positions amounts to $261 million worth of Bitcoin. A similar picture is reported by Bitfinex where long positions also outweigh shorts.

BTC/USD: Technical picture

BTC/USD has printed three green candles in a row on a daily chart. While the price retreated from Wednesday’s high at $9,415, it is still moving with bullish bias well above the psychological $9,000. This area served as a strong resistance, now it has flipped into a support that is likely to slow down the bears and attract new longs to the market. However, if it is broken, the sell-off may be extended towards $8,750. This support is created by weekly SMA50 and followed by the weekly low at $8,535. 

On the upside, we will need to see a sustainable move above $9,400 for the upside to gain traction towards the next bullish aim at $9,500. Once it is out of the way, a psychological $10,000 will come into focus. This resistance area is closely followed by 50.0% Fibo retracement for the downside move from July 2019 high to December 2019 low. 

BTC/USD daily chart

At the time of writing, BTC/USD is changing hands at $9,300, having gained 2.7% in the recent 24 hours. Notably, Bitcoin’s market value increased to $170 billion, which is 67% of the total capitalization of all digital assets in circulation. 

According to Intotheblock data, over 77% of Bitcoin holders are making money at the current price level. Over 600k addresses will move into a positive territory once BTC surpasses $9,400.