Bitcoin faces $100K test: Bull trap or ‘bonafide’ BTC price breakout?

Bitcoin (BTC) bulls fought for $100,000 at the Feb. 21 Wall Street open as US sellers sparked volatility.

BTC price still lacks “bonafide breakout”

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting $99,500 on Bitstamp for the first time since the start of the month.

Continuing a pattern seen multiple times since, Bitcoin sold off as Wall Street arrived, contrasting with positive momentum during the Asia and European sessions.

These had built on strength which accompanied US jobless claims the day prior.

“FireCharts shows how BTC bid liquidity dynamics have been changing over the past few days to push price up from the last dip, and the binned CVD shows purple whales leading this charge today,” trading resource Material Indicators wrote in part of its latest X analysis, referencing one of its proprietary trading tools.

“Whether this develops into a bull trap or a bonafide breakout remains to be seen. Keeping an eye on liquidity dynamics around $100k and Purple Whale order flow.”

Popular trader CRG meanwhile noted that the short-term battle revolved around the midpoint of Bitcoin’s multimonth trading range.

“$BTC bears trying to step in where they need to,” he told X followers, describing the market as “looking good overall.”

Optimistic, too, was popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital, who updated X followers on a bullish divergence playing out on Bitcoin’s relative strength index (RSI) on daily timeframes.

“The Daily RSI has broken its Downtrend dating to late January 2025,” he reported on the day.

Dollar offers Bitcoin tailwind

Crypto and risk assets meanwhile stood to benefit from increasing US dollar weakness.

Related: Bitcoin bull market can survive $77K BTC price dip in 2025 — Analyst

The US dollar index (DXY) fell to 106.38 on the day, its lowest level since mid-December 2024.

Reacting, David Burrows, Chairman & Chief Investment Officer at asset management firm Barometer Capital Management, noted DXY descending from a rare “overbought” RSI signal.

“$USD ( $DXY ) has been overbought based on RSI 4 times since ’22,” he confirmed alongside an explanatory chart. 

“When the dollar declined in the aftermath it coincided with strong performance in cyclical equities, commodities and global stocks. This appears likely be the same.”

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.