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Ethereum's native token Ether (ETH) saw a modest pullback on July 17 after ramming into a critical technical resistance confluence.

Merge-led Ethereum price breakout

ETH's price dropped by 1.8% to $1,328 after struggling to move above two strong resistance levels: the 50-day exponential moving average (5-day EMA; the red wave) and a descending trendline (black) serving as a price ceiling since May.

Previously, Ether rallied by over 40% from $1,000 on July 13 to over $1,400 on July 16. The jump appeared partly due to euphoria surrounding "the Merge" slated for September.

Meanwhile, a golden cross's appearance on Ethereum's four-hour chart also boosted Ether's upside sentiment among technical analysts.

ETH price risks fakeout

Ether's 40%-plus price rally since July 13 also had its price break above a critical horizontal resistance that somewhat constitutes an "ascending triangle pattern."

Bitcoin (BTC) spiked to one-week highs on July 17 amid warnings that traders should not trust current BTC price action.

Binance inflows see multi-week high

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching $21,600 on Bitstamp, its best performance since last Sunday. 

The pair saw a fresh leg up during the weekend, this nonetheless coming on the back of thin, retail-driven "out-of-hours" liquidity with institutions out of the picture.

With Bitcoin prone to "fakeout" moves both up and down in such conditions, there was thus little appetite to believe that current trajectory would endure as the weekly close loomed.

"Don't let CT noise change your vision of how things really are," popular social media account, Il Capo of Crypto, told followers on the day, referencing Crypto Twitter narratives.

Bitcoin (BTC) consolidated higher on July 16 after the Wall Street trading week finished with modest gains for United States equities.

Can Bitcoin bulls reclaim the 200-week moving average?

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD ranging between $20,500 and $21,000 into the weekend.

The pair thus preserved the majority of its comeback from the week's lows, these following shock U.S. inflation data and sparking weakness across risk assets.

Now, out-of-hours trading meant that the classic scenario of breakouts and fakeouts on thin liquidity could accompany Bitcoin into the weekly close.

Eyeing order book data from Binance, the largest global exchange by volume, showed key resistance clustered around the $22,000 mark should bulls attempt to nudge the market higher.