Decentral Block Post

Bitcoin (BTC) has been trying to break out of a descending trend for the past week and the first attempt on June 16 failed to break the $22,600 resistance. The second attempt at $21,400 on June 21 was followed by an 8% price correction. After two failed breakouts, the price currently trades below $20,000 and raises questions on whether $17,600 was really the bottom.

The longer it takes for BTC to break from this bearish pattern, the stronger the resistance line becomes and traders are following the trend closely. That is precisely why it’s important for bulls to show strength during this week’s $2.25 billion monthly options expiry.

Regulatory uncertainty continues to weigh down on crypto markets after European Central Bank (ECB) president Christine Lagarde voiced her conviction on the necessity of tighter scrutiny. On June 20, Lagarde expressed her thoughts on the sector’s staking and lending activities: "[...] the lack of regulation is often covering fraud, completely illegitimate claims about valuation and very often speculation as well as criminal dealings."

Bitcoin miners being forced to liquidate their BTC holdings is adding more negative pressure to BTC price and data from Arcane Research shows that publicly-listed Bitcoin mining firms sold 100% of their BTC production in May compared to the usual 20% to 40% in previous months. Collectively, miners hold 800,000 BTC, which creates concerns about a possible sell-off. The Bitcoin price correction drained miners' profitability because the production cost has, at times, exceeded their margins.

The June 24 options expiry will be especially alarming for investors because Bitcoin bears are likely to profit by $620 million by suppressing BTC below $20,000.

Bitcoin (BTC) checked losses while United States equities drifted down on June 22 as the Federal Reserve kept quiet on monetary policy.

Powell keeps quiet on Fed moves

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hovering near $20,500 at the June 22 Wall Street open.

The pair had wicked below the $20,000 mark overnight before recovering, still down from the previous day's $21,700 highs.

Markets braced for last-minute surprises from testimony to Congress by Fed Chair Jerome Powell on the day, this ultimately providing no fresh insight into the central bank's approach to taming rampant inflation.

"We anticipate that ongoing rate increases will be appropriate; the pace of those changes will continue to depend on the incoming data and the evolving outlook for the economy," a copy of Powell's testimony released before his appearance read.