The situation is getting worse for Bitcoin, with the cryptocurrency dropping to a low of $28.931 on Monday afternoon, and standing at $29.150 at the time of writing.
Note that this weakness in BTC appeared to be in response to a Wall Street Journal article about Binance.
Bitcoin falls as WSJ accuses Binance of wash trading
Indeed, the WSJ revealed that Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao suggested in a private conversation that affiliates of the crypto-currency exchange had engaged in "wash trading" several years ago.
This practice involves trading an asset with oneself or an affiliate. The result is that there is no economic substance in the transactions, which can inflate both prices and trading volume, a practice that has been illegal on stock markets for nearly 100 years.
Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Mr Zhao and Binance.US, alleging that a company he controlled had inflated trading volumes.
This is an important issue, given that the SEC has received several proposals for Bitcoin spot ETFs in recent weeks. It should be remembered that the regulator has already rejected such requests on several occasions, citing risks of market manipulation.
So, if wash trading is indeed a widespread practice, this will add weight to the SEC's case, and could provide it with a reason to refuse the recent new applications, despite the fact that they come from prestigious players such as BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) and include monitoring agreements designed to mitigate the risks of manipulation.
This explains why the WSJ article sent shockwaves through the entire crypto market.
Bitcoin traders' attention should now turn to the Fed's decision, expected tomorrow evening.
Technical thresholds to watch for on Bitcoin
From a chart point of view, Bitcoin sent out a major bearish signal on Monday, breaking below the lower bound of the horizontal channel that had framed its movement for more than 2 weeks.
In addition to the psychological threshold of $29,000 tested yesterday, the next potential support will be the 100-day moving average, currently at $28,440. Further down, the $28,000 and $27,000 thresholds and then the 200-day moving average at $26,325 will be the next supports.
On the upside, the lower boundary of the horizontal channel from which BTC has just broken out from below, at around $29,600, is immediate resistance, before $30,000 and $31,000, then this year's high at $31,800.
(Translated from French using DeepL)