Bitcoin (BTC) continues to trade in a tightening range inside a pennant pattern and while the price has moved higher up the xx-day moving boilerplate, information technology's clear that the bulls and bears are fighting over the direction the digital asset will take.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView show that BTC traded in a range between $34,955 and $37,850 over the weekend just traders buying each dip appear to be doing and then with less bullish conviction.

Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360

JPMorgan research analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou recently stressed the importance of Bitcoin breaking out above the $40,000 level soon in society to avoid beingness hurt by an exodus of "trend-following" investors who could worsen concluding week'southward correction.

Co-ordinate to Yves Renno, Head of Trading at Wirex, Bitcoin is in a "consolidation above the $35,500 level" but Renno yet sees an overall positive tendency in the marketplace.

Renno also said that the most recent correction was actually viewed as an opportunity to purchase for large, institutional-size investors, every bit evidenced by an increment in the number of BTC whales and a "low to boilerplate" miner supply.

Renno said that investors should wait to come across a "continued flow of high volatility with a positive medium-trend," in the upcoming weeks and months based on action in the derivatives market.

He said:

"The open interest is always hitting new ATHs, which makes the market even riskier since information technology implies that there is a higher risk of liquidation during a correction, meaning collateral sold, which typically amplifies the corrections."
BTC/USDT 4-hour nautical chart. Source: TradingView

Ether (ETH) too looks to evidence "continued strong cost momentum" as Renno sees it, driven by the Eth2 launch and upcoming CME futures launch in February. Eth2 is also expected to provide a boost to the DeFi economy in full general as the ecosystem equally a whole will benefit from a decrease in transaction fees and less congestion.

Positive developments on the regulatory front

News that incoming President Joe Biden intends to choose Gary Gensler, a professor who previously taught a blockchain and cryptocurrency class at MIT, as Chairman of the United States Securities and Substitution Committee, provided the crypto sector with a brusque-term boost in sentiment.

Bitcoin besides received a significant vote-of-confidence from Stephen Harper, the former prime government minister of Canada. Harper suggested that there may be a identify for Bitcoin as function of "a basket of reserve currencies to supervene upon the dollar."

While Bitcoin price has been trading sideways, crypto pundits take been calling for Ether to breakout and follow BTC's parabolic motion. Within the terminal hour, Ether did manage a bullish breakout in its BTC pair and USD pair. At the time of writing, the peak-ranked altcoin is upward 5.43% and trades $1,327.

Despite pulling back on Monday, Polkadot (DOT) also continues to be one of the tiptop-performing altcoins, seeing a 75% increment in price last calendar week and flipping XRP as it sets sight on the $20 mark. Currently, DOT trades at $sixteen.80.

BTC/USD daily chart. Source: Coin360

The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1.03 trillion and Bitcoin'due south dominance rate is 65.7%.