Bitcoin slips toward $76,229 support as short-term momentum fades

Bitcoin hovered between $76,400 and $77,100 on Wednesday, down 5 percent from the Aug. 28 high of $81,455, as bulls defended the $76,229 support floor.

CryptoQuant data showed realized capitalization expanded by more than $4.6 billion in the seven days through Aug. 30, the strongest weekly move since the bear market began, though the 30-day growth rate stood at just 0.4 percent, contributor Darkfost reported. The reading points to renewed capital activity, but a single weekly increase does not confirm a lasting shift in liquidity.

The pullback followed a rejection at the 50-week moving average near $81,085 on Aug. 25, when Bitcoin touched an intraday high of $81,265 before running into resistance toward the May swing high near $82,800. Glassnode recorded the largest single-day short liquidation event since 2019 on Aug. 19, with shorts accounting for roughly 85 percent of liquidations, and one window later wiped out about $324 million in crypto positions, including close to $270 million in longs. By Aug. 26, shorts made up roughly 51.6 percent of taker volume and futures open interest had slipped below 700,000 BTC.

Spot ETF demand has provided a counterweight to the selling. U.S. spot funds recorded net inflows of about $2.57 billion across seven positive sessions through Aug. 25, with BlackRock's IBIT contributing $284.4 million of the $314.3 million added that day, according to Farside Investors data. The streak reached nine sessions before a $201.9 million outflow on Aug. 28 ended the run. The rally itself also drew support from a weaker dollar, as Treasury plans for larger long-dated bond buybacks revived the debasement trade that lifted Bitcoin and gold.

The daily Relative Strength Index at 78.67, above the overbought threshold of 70, leaves the move exposed to further profit-taking even as price holds above all four tracked exponential moving averages, with the 20-day EMA near $71,865 and the 200-day near $71,974. That gap between stretched short-term momentum and a firmer longer-term structure is the tension now playing out at the $76,229 floor.

Analyst Crypto Patel said the daily candle printed a decisive bearish rejection within the $81,000-$83,000 high-time-frame supply zone, placing $78,000 at the battleground. He views $83,000 as the level that invalidates his bearish setup, with a primary downside objective between $50,000 and $55,000 if liquidity gives way.

Defense of $76,229, combined with the stronger longer-term moving-average structure, would keep the recovery intact after Bitcoin's record weekly gain of $14,775 in the week ending Aug. 23, a 23.5 percent rise, per Galaxy Research. A break lower would put $75,000 back in focus, followed by the $71,800-$72,000 EMA cluster and the high-volume zone near $67,500-$68,000, where the largest concentration of prior trading activity sits.

Traders are watching whether buyers can reclaim $78,000 and then the $80,000-$81,000 zone before another attempt at the supply area that stopped the latest rally. Renewed realized-cap contraction or further ETF outflows would weaken the case for a floor, while a high-time-frame close above $83,000 would shift the technical picture in favor of the bulls.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.