Bitcoin tracks $39K ahead of Europe vote on Proof-of-Work legality

Bitcoin (BTC) stayed steady at $39,000 into Monday's Wall Street close as stocks took the opportunity to reclaim some losses.

Bulls need "miracle" $40,600 reclaim

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD unmoved at the opening bell on March 14.

The pair had rebounded from a last-minute comedown into Sunday's weekly close to so far avoid a deeper retracement.

The week was set to bring many potential challenges for bulls, however, beginning with a European vote on outlawing Proof-of-Work algorithm cryptocurrencies Monday.

Wednesday, however, was the main focus, this being the day that the United States Federal Reserve was due to announce a key interest rate hike of a rumored 25 basis points.

Geopolitical tensions surrounding Russia's invasion of Ukraine, along with a resurgence of Coronavirus in China, meanwhile added to the list of hurdles.

Traders were thus lackluster on the immediate prospects, given what the market had to navigate. For Crypto Ed, the 0.618 Fibonacci level at around $40,400 was to form a local top before a deeper retracement took hold.

Only a "miracle" reclaim of $40,600, he said, could produce a bullish outcome.

#BTC
Looking for a retrace to the .618fib which lines up with taking out latest top (stop hunt)
Pic 1: take out the low TF range high
Pic 2: lines up with my S/R at 40.6k

Going short when sweep of the highs in a SFP.
Long when a miracle happens and clear reclaim of $40.6k pic.twitter.com/Ic3uNTxGGH

— Ed_NL (@Crypto_Ed_NL) March 14, 2022

Fellow trader and analyst Anbessa meanwhile highlighted a cut-off point of $37,600 for bulls to defend.

On live orderbook charts, on-chain monitoring resource Materail Indicators further flagged increased sell pressure appearing at $40,000 on Monday.

"New BTCUSDT ask liquidity that just appeared seems to be trying to push price down to the ladder of bids below. Expecting it to get pulled if bids gets filled," the account commented on a chart showing the changes on the Binance orderbook.

Bloomberg analyst: Bitcoin "cold" against oil

Turning to longer timeframes, Bloomberg Intelligence chief strategist Mike McGlone doubled down on his opinion that Bitcoin would ultimately emerge stronger from the current turbulence.

Related: Two years since the COVID-19 crash: 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week

Bitcoin, he noted on the day, was defying an "ebbing tide" in risk asset demand by protecting most of its support.

"The fact that one of the best performing and most volatile assets since the financial crisis -- Bitcoin -- is showing relative buoyancy in an ebbing tide for risk assets in 1Q may portend the crypto's maturation toward digital collateral, in a world going that way," he argued alongside a chart comparing WTI oil to BTC.

Commodities remained the hottest movers as the week began, while oil futures nonetheless began to cool.