Bitcoin remains strong this weekend. After Friday’s soft rise in CPI, prices continue to lean into the same overhead zone around $70,300, with bids continuing to appear above $65,000.
The details are more important than the stall.
Last Sunday, I set $71,500 as a market checkpoint. This line will determine whether this rally recovers or fades into another decline. The logic remains the same, the levels remain the same, but the underlying market movement looks different this time.
Bitcoin has already lived through the violent part of this story. The crash towards $60,000 left a long wick and a long memory. Since then, the price has recovered to the low $70,000s, and every time the price rises, the same question arises: Is this rally reshaping the structure or just giving traders a clean spot to sell?
The weak CPI result gave Bitcoin the kind of fuel it typically needs to confidently test resistance. Prices rose, the charts brightened, and the market drifted back into that familiar decision zone.
It’s now Saturday morning, liquidity is thin, and the candlestick appears to be hovering around $70,300. In theory, this is where weak pullbacks often resolve, especially after macro headline moves. In reality, Bitcoin continues to refuse to give sellers easy follow-through.
That rejection is the setting.
Markets looking for lows tend to rally quickly over the weekend. Slip through ledges, stop, revisit wicks, and turn every bounce into an exit ramp. This weekend has been a different mood, with the rally continuing and the floor around $65,000 continuing to hold, even as the price struggles to break through the next ceiling.
This type of action fits into a common situation in damaged markets, when prices stop falling rapidly and start moving sideways, forcing both sides to wait.
That also applies to the human side of this cycle. Traders remember $60,000 as a panic candle. Long-term holders remember the speed of the decline and the calm that followed. Novice investors remember that confidence quickly turned into liquidation.
When prices sustain above $65,000 after a CPI-driven pop, it gives the crowd a shock and something they rarely get after hours.
The weekend floor was real, $65,000 was the barometer.
Weekend price action strips away the fundamentals of the market. The order book is thinning, the headlines are dulling, and all that matters is whether buyers actually show up when the charts look heavy.
Now they are showing up.
Bitcoin continues to approach the $70,000 area, continues to hit $70,300, and continues to retreat in slow motion. The important part is underneath, continuing to find support before each dip turns into a slide. That support is centered around $65,000, which is starting to feel like a line the market respects.
This is important because the last major reference point below that is the core low near $60,000. This zone has a certain emotional weight that turns a small repulsion into a large reaction. As prices hover in the high $60,000s to low $70,000s, the market begins to wonder if Wick will ever return.
As prices hold through the weekend, the market begins to ask another question: has the wick already done its job?
Local bottoms rarely arrive with clean announcements. It usually manifests itself as a change in rhythm.
The rhythm changes look like this: Sellers push, buyers absorb, and price stops moving with each wave. Instead of building fear, the chart starts building range. Markets start trading hours, not trading distances.
Therefore, the stall at $70,300 can still be interpreted as bullish in context.
Stalls are valuable when they have resilience underneath. Turn resistance into a pressure test. It also turns support into a living level that everyone can watch in real time.
It’s also worth remembering how $71,500 fits into this.
Over the last week, Bitcoin has been knocking on that door, running dry with every attempt. The market has been hesitant early this week, which often shows up when sellers try to defend early and buyers keep stepping in anyway. This dynamic can lead to a breakout later on, and it can also cause more lateral frustration initially, especially if the trader is trying to stay on top of the move.
Sideways action has a strange reputation in Bitcoin because people associate it with boredom. In fact, sideways often indicate the most important negotiation of the entire movement. This is where leverage resets, where lagging sellers finally exit, where patient buyers accumulate, and where the market decides whether there is support for the next push.
If Bitcoin continues to hold $65,000 while exploring $70,300, the chart will start to look more like a base forming under resistance than a failed rebound. This foundation will not erase the larger cycle debate, but it will change the short-term trajectory.
$71,500 remains checkpoint, $60,000 remains scar tissue
There are still clear levels of hierarchy in the market.
$71,500 remains a major checkpoint as the price has already rejected multiple times since the crash. This is the line where traders will determine whether a recovery is actually accepted above it or if they will remain trapped within the same band.
The reason $70,300 is important today is because that’s where the market is currently stagnant. It’s also close enough to $71,500 that it could serve as a pre-test for sellers to lean in early and buyers to preview how crowded the ceiling is.
The $65,000 mark is important because it is the line Bitcoin continues to defend amid thin liquidity over the weekend. It is the closest shelf that prevents the chart from slipping into the emotional gravity of the core.
And $60,000 sits below it all as the scar tissue level. That core created shared memory, and shared memory created reflexes. Traders tighten their stops, holders feel nervous, and the closer the price gets to that zone, the more the market surges.
Bitcoin’s sideways action alleviates the direct pressure from that memory. It also gives the market room to do healthier things, trade sideways and restructure.
This is where the broader cycle story remains important as local foundations may form within a larger bearish framework. Even as markets open ranges, reduce shorts, and regain parity, they could face more severe stress later in the year as liquidity shifts, risk appetite wanes, and the macro environment tightens again.
My $49,000 bearish target is still in the picture. It remains likely that it will be reached later this year if the economic cycle continues to ease and risks flow out of the system again. This target belongs to the macro path and is the kind of move that comes with the return of fear, increased volatility, and signs of market plumbing stress.
Current price trends belong to a closer chapter. This chapter looks like resilience, a rally caused by soft CPI data, stalling below resistance, and a steady defense of $65,000 even if the weekend gives sellers an opportunity to put pressure on.
Both chapters may apply at the same time.
That’s why this moment is so useful. This gives the market the opportunity to indicate whether there is a lower bound on bounces and gives traders a map that does not rely on predictions.
If Bitcoin regains $71,500 and breaks above it, the next resistance zone on my map will come back into focus: around $73,700, then $77,000, then just under $79,000. These levels are important because they are where the market has previously paused, reversed, or accelerated, and where profit-taking and leverage triggers tend to be concentrated.
Even if Bitcoin continues to stall below $70,300 and returns to the midrange, the shelves below it, especially $66,900 and $65,000, will remain relevant. A strong defense of these levels will keep the sideways theory alive, and if we can break out below them cleanly, attention will return to the $60,000 storage area.
What levels should we pay attention to and what is “bullish” from here?
This setup is easier than it looks.
The short-term bullish view is that continued range building, price maintenance above key levels, and repeated pressure on $70,300 will eventually lead to a re-challenge to $71,500. It looks like a push that will be bought quickly, with sellers struggling to push the market into a deeper unwind.
It’s also similar to patience.
The range can last longer than people expect, especially after heavy movements. It can cut up both long and short sentences and can frustrate those who need a clean story. That frustration often becomes fuel later on as you shake off leverage and rebuild on a healthier foundation.
Here’s a pretty map for the week ahead.
- $71,500the main playback line, beyond which the tone changes and opens up the higher bands.
- $70,300today’s stall point, and continuing to push it increases the likelihood of a new $71,500 test.
- $70,000the psychological hinge, is the level that often determines whether the dip remains under control.
- $66,900mid-band shelf. Momentum resets frequently here, and weak movements often fade out.
- $65,000a barometer for the weekend, levels that keep the local bottom theory intact while it holds.
- ~$60,000the lower core memory zone, revisiting it can bring speed and emotion back into the chart.
- $49,000a bearish target for the larger cycle, and a target for next year if macro stress returns and risks ease further.
What I look at when the market moves is also simple.
Velocity, will Bitcoin cut through resistance or dig into it? See if the price remains above the playback level long enough for acceptance to form. In response, will the market aggressively defend support or abandon support in slow motion?
Saturday’s data points are clear so far. Bitcoin has stalled around $70,300 and is trading above local lows due to thin liquidity. This combination is bullish for a local bottom and sideways phase, as it suggests strong demand beneath it and sellers scrambling to absorb.
There is still room for another painful chapter in the larger cycle later this year. The short-term chart shows a quieter signal, resilience after the shock.
Disclosure, this is market commentary and financial decisions require personal responsibility and appropriate professional guidance.
(Tag translation) Bitcoin
