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

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

BTC price lines up trend-line attacks

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

Analyzing low timeframes, popular 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 began in part of a post on X.

Skew revealed when he called 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 summarized.

Keith Alan, co-founder of trading resource Material Indicators, noted that 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.

One shadow hanging over the rebound were sustained outflows for the 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 tradfi 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 one of its Quicktake blog posts on Dec. 24, contributor Joo Hyun Ryu noted that demand from South Korea in particular 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.”

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.