Despite today being Bitcoin’s 10th birthday, the cryptocurrency’s bulls have thus far been unable to break above the top of its current trading range and are currently defending its price from breaking below the bottom of this range.

As discussed in yesterday’s market update, it is critical that the bulls defend this region, as it has historically acted as support ever since Bitcoin has been ranging between $6,200 and $6,700. On October 29th, bulls faced a relatively minor setback after Bitcoin’s price fell from approximately $6,500 to lows of just under $6,300 on the aggregated markets.

Traders Awaiting Two Possible Trading Situations

Since this drop, Bitcoin (BTC) has been trading sideways, bouncing each time the price dips into the $6,200 region, but it has been unable to break above $6,400. Investors are currently watching for two possible situations.

The first realistic possibility is that Bitcoin forms what investors jovially refer to as a “bart” pattern, which is when Bitcoin rises, or falls, trades sideways, and then sharply moves back to its previous price levels. In this case, if BTC were to bart, its price would move back towards the $6,500 region, and possibly higher.

The second realistic possibility is that Bitcoin breaks below the psychologically important $6,200 level, which could lead it to test its year-to-date lows of around $5,800, which will be a critical level for bulls to defend in order to maintain Bitcoin’s parabolic movement.

Analysts Have Mixed Opinions on Bitcoin’s Future Price

The persisting sideways market has led many investors to believe that a big movement (for better or worse) is imminent, and this is mainly due to the mixed predictions from industry experts.

Here is a run-down of a few notable predictions from notable figures in the cryptocurrency industry:

- Tom Lee (Fundstrat Global Advisors): BTC Price to $25,000 by end-of-year.

- Tim Draper (Draper Associates): $250,000 by 2020.

- John McAfee (McAfee Antivirus): $1 million by 2020.

Rob Sluymer, an analyst at Fundstrat Global Advisors, recently spoke about the future of the markets, explaining to investors that lower market volatility and trading volume is fundamentally good news for the markets, saying:

“We continue to view the decline in volatility, lower volumes and positive divergences between many alts and larger caps, notably [Ethereum and Bitcoin] as encouraging technical developments.”

Over the next few days and weeks, investors will likely gain a better understanding of which direction the markets will move as we head into the end of the year.

All the cryptocurrencies mentioned in this article are available to trade on covesting.io