Bitcoin coils between key trend lines as $98K boosts 'Kimchi premium'

From cointelegraph by Ryan S. Gladwin

Bitcoin circled $98,000 into Dec. 25 as traders celebrated a well-timed Christmas Santa rally.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

BTC price lines up trend-line attacks

Data from  Cointelegraph Markets Pro  and  TradingView  showed Bitcoin  BTC$98,432  price volatility cooling as the holiday period began with  $4,000 daily gains .

Analyzing low timeframes, trader Skew was quietly optimistic about the situation playing out in bulls’ favor.

“So far this bounce has played out here with price retesting the systematic trend which led price from $68K -> $108K,” he said in a post on X.

Skew revealed a “clean” bullish relative strength index ( RSI ) divergence on the 4-hour chart, and described attempts to drive BTC/USD lower as a “failed auction.”

“Underlying momentum is pretty good, will be keeping an eye on this,” the post said.

BTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: Skew/X

Keith Alan, co-founder of trading resource Material Indicators, noted that the price was now stuck between two daily simple moving averages (SMAs).

These came in the form of the 21-day and 50-day trend line at around $99,600 and $94,650, respectively. Prior to dipping below it this week, Bitcoin had held the 21-day SMA as support since mid-October, with the 50-day support still in place.

“Which one do you think breaks first?” Alan  queried .

BTC/USD 1-day chart with 21, 50SMA. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

One shadow hanging over the rebound was sustained outflows for US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

As  Cointelegraph reported , these hit record levels this week, with $1.5 billion in net outflows from the ETF products over just four days.

Data from sources, including UK-based investment firm Farside Investors, put the Christmas Eve outflow tally at $338.4 million.

US spot Bitcoin ETF netflows (screenshot). Source: Farside Investors

“UTradFifi markets are closed today so $BTC gets a break from the recent selling,” popular crypto investor and analyst Satoshi Stacker  reasoned .

CryptoQuant: Korea’s Bitcoin buyers are back

Onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant was also upbeat on the outlook, reporting increased BTC exposure among speculative short-term holders (STHs) during this week’s dip.

Related:  BTC price risks $20K crash: 5 Things to know in Bitcoin this week

In a  Quicktake blog post  on Dec. 24, contributor Joo Hyun Ryu noted that demand from South Korea had increased.

An accompanying chart showed what CryptoQuant calls the Korea Premium, also known as the “Kimchi Premium,” the aggregate difference in price between South Korean exchanges and others.

“This sharp correction in the market, however, appears to be attracting new investors, as evidenced by a 3 percentage point increase in the share of short-term holders (STH) under three months within just one week,” he wrote. 

“Notably, there has been a remarkable surge in the Korean premium, which has reached a local high of 5.12, indicating a strong demand for Bitcoin among South Korean investors.”

Bitcoin Korea Premium Index. Source: CryptoQuant