Bitcoin price wicks below $20K as whales send 50K BTC to exchanges

Bitcoin bulls lose their grip as BTC price action remains firmly below a key long-term trendline.

Bitcoin (BTC) saw a dramatic change of mood into June 22 as multi-day highs gave way to a fresh dive under $20,000.

BTC could see accumulation below key trendline

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD abruptly halting its latest gains to hit lows of $19,947 on Bitstamp.

The largest cryptocurrency had passed $21,700 the day before, its best performance since June 16, but momentum waned during Wall Street trading.

For popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital, there was danger in BTC/USD being unable to reclaim its 200-week moving average (MA).

A classic support line in previous bear markets, Bitcoin had formerly retained the 200-week MA as support with wicks below it characterizing macro price bottoms.

“If BTC can’t reclaim the 200-week MA as support… Then one of the scenarios of what could happen would involve downside to new lows before the formation of an Accumulation Range for the first time below the 200-week MA,” he warned.

The 200-week MA stood at $22,420 at the time of writing.

Fellow trader Credible Crypto was more optimistic on the short-term perspective, telling Twitter followers that he did not foresee spot price going much lower.

About to re-visit our weekly demand level after we bounced off of it over the last few days. Not expecting new local lows here- looking for the GREEN region to hold and for us to put in another local high into the RED resistance region between 22-24k. $BTC https://t.co/FbngeJw8NT pic.twitter.com/F79eokL5W6

— CrediBULL Crypto (@CredibleCrypto) June 22, 2022

Zooming out, Crypto Tony likewise highlighted the “demand zone” that BTC/USD was now acting in.

“On the macro we can see a few things here. We broke down clearly from a distribution range. We are now testing the first demand zone from this range. A reaction is expected, but not a bottom yet in my opinion,” he tweeted.

“A wick down to $17k – $15k on the cards.”

Whales look to reduce BTC exposure

For the largest BTC hodlers, meanwhile, signs of change were already visible in on-chain data.

Related: That’s not hodling! Over 50% of Bitcoin addresses still in profit

According to on-chain analytics firm Glassnode, on June 20 and 21, Bitcoin whales deposited over 50,000 BTC to exchanges. This followed 58,000 BTC in inflows on a single day on June 13.

Overall inflows from whale wallets thus remained elevated on an intraday basis, while still not matching the levels seen during some previous sell-offs.

On May 9, for example, the same group sent over 80,000 BTC to exchange accounts, the most since March 2020.

As Cointelegraph reported earlier this week, whale buyers meanwhile created a potential major support level just above $19,000.

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