Is $40K Bitcoin the new $10K? BTC holds $43K support as exchange Bitfinex halts trading

An unexpected problem causes Bitfinex to temporarily shut down, with Bitcoin price action undoing gains in the process.

Bitcoin (BTC) erased overnight gains on Sept. 30 as sudden problems at major exchange Bitfinex caused a mass outage.

Bitfinex investigates mystery shutdown

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD losing the $43,000 level following the news after hitting local highs above $43,800 on Bitstamp.

With the source of the issue unknown at the time of writing, traders were left in the dark as an already sensitive crypto market fell back toward established support.

“We are investigating issues with the platform and have to temporarily halt trading,” Bitfinex wrote as part of its latest service update.

We are investigating issues with the platform and have to temporarily halt trading. We will keep everyone updated on here and our status page https://t.co/u3pYCVVGQq as we know more.
We apologise for the inconvenience.

— Bitfinex (@bitfinex) September 30, 2021

Tuesday had seen fellow exchange Binance, the largest by volume in the world, suspend trading for two hours as part of scheduled maintenance, this having no significant impact on BTC price action.

With Thursday already set to be a charged day, however, Bitcoin looked set to close out September almost exactly at its predicted “worst-case scenario” price of $43,000.

In so doing, the largest cryptocurrency would once again validate predictions made by stock-to-flow model creator PlanB, who also correctly estimated the August close of $47,000.

Fellow trader and analyst Rekt Capital, meanwhile, reiterated the need for BTC/USD to reclaim its 21-week exponential moving average level (EMA) by the end of Sunday to preserve overall bullish momentum.

Market mimics $10,000 BTC from September 2020

Meanwhile, the overall character of the Bitcoin market was still far from bearish for most.

Related: Bitcoin breaking new highs in Q4 will ‘temporarily turn alts to dust’ — Analyst

Despite lackluster price action, the odds remain for a dramatic return to form in the coming weeks and months, with comparisons to the same period in 2020.

The latest was from Cole Garner, who noted that the large block of buyer support just below $40,000 was reminiscent of the order book setups when BTC/USD was at $10,000 in September last year.

Last time we saw bids this thick, #Bitcoin was at $10k. pic.twitter.com/nQqleOUI36

— Cole Garner (@ColeGarnerXBT) September 29, 2021

This week also saw long-time pundit Bobby Lee predict not only $100,000 in the mid-term but as much as $200,000 or more for Bitcoin in a new “FOMO rally.”