It’s been a hectic start of the year, with pricing surging to a new all-time high only to crash shortly thereafter. But this past week has been much calmer, with prices swinging above and below the $800 mark. Little brother Litecoin remains undecided as well.

A Calmer Week for Bitcoin

It’s been a much calmer week for BTC/USD. Prices are currently quoted at $865 dollars, only $3 below last Tuesday’s price. This a price difference of only 0.34 percent. On the chart below the price action for the latest seven days is marked with a yellow rectangle.

Still the short-term trend remains down. To end it, the bulls will have to push bitcoin above the $900 round figure. To resume the broken uptrend however, BTC will have to stage a breakout above the highs at $1,096.

Above current prices resistance can be found at the $900 and $1,000 round levels, closely followed by $1,096 on FXOpen (around $1,163 on other USD exchanges). On the bottom, we have support at the $800 level, followed by $750. In fact there’s a large support area here, between $730 and $750 dollars. A breakdown below it could intensify the losses for bitcoin.

With the end of the rally, we’ve seen price differences return to more historical levels. Right now FXOpen is lagging the US market by only $14 dollars, compared to the $37 reported two weeks ago. The USD vs CNY gap has shrunk from over $100 dollars to $21 at the moment. Both of these gaps were much smaller 24 hours ago, before the small perk up higher.

Litecoin Still Range-bound

Little brother Litecoin is still range-bound. But while BTC/USD is trading little changed, LTC has been volatile. The altcoin is down to $3.84 from $4.27 last week. This is a loss of 43 cents or 10 percent.

The thresholds to starting a new trend remain largely unchanged. A new rally requires a breakout above the yearly highs at $4.60. A new downtrend could start on a decisive breakdown below the $3.40 swing low. Careful though, there are several support levels close-by at the $3.36, $3.31 and $3.22 swing lows. A clearing of this support area may exacerbate the LTC losses.

On the upper end we have a cluster of resistance at $4.08, $4 and $3.95. More resistance above can be found at $4.60 and the $5 round figure. Last year’s high at $5.64 dollars is another notable level to keep in mind.

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