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Bitcoin briefly surged to $74,000 before pulling back to around $71,000, with the move up largely retracing war-driven losses and then giving back about a third of that rebound.
Technical analysts say the rally stalled at a cluster of resistance around the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement and the 50-day moving average, with evidence that a short squeeze rather than fresh bullish conviction powered the spike.
While major cryptocurrencies are still up on the week, a deteriorating macro backdrop tied to the Iran war, surging oil and a stronger dollar raises doubts about the durability of the crypto rally, making $70,000 key support and $64,000 the next downside level to watch.
Bitcoin got to $74,000 and ran out of further buying pressure.
The largest cryptocurrency pulled back to $70,987 by mid-day East Asia time, down 2.2% over the past 24 hours after Thursday's surge carried it to its highest level since early February.
The rally from Saturday's war-driven low near $64,000 to Thursday's $74,000 peak amounted to roughly 15% in five days, but the retreat since has given back about a third of that move.
Chart watchers such as FxPro chief analyst Alex Kuptsikevich pointed to the rejection coincided with the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement and just below the 50-day moving average, two technical barriers that tend to attract sellers in bear market rallies.
Fibonacci retracement levels are derived from a mathematical sequence that traders use to identify where a bounce is likely to stall. The idea is that after a large move down, prices tend to retrace a predictable percentage of that drop before resuming the trend.$BTC
