Bitcoin Holds Above $85K Amid Mining Challenges and Macro Uncertainty
Bitcoin continues to hover above the $85,000 mark, up nearly 2% in the last 24 hours, as multiple technical indicators suggest a potential bullish breakout may be imminent. However, mining industry challenges and global trade tensions keep uncertainty high in the market.
Critical $85K Weekly Close Could Determine Short-Term Price Direction
Analysts are closely monitoring Bitcoin’s weekly close, with $85,000 identified as a critical threshold for maintaining bullish momentum. Chief analyst Ryan Lee of Bitget Research says “Bitcoin’s relief rally after the FOMC meeting and lower CPI readings has analysts eyeing a weekly close above $85,000, as critical for resuming upward momentum.”
Technical analysis reveals Bitcoin is now caught in an ascending triangle pattern, a usually positive structure that might be resolved with a movement toward $91,965 should the upper resistance break. On the other hand, a loss of support might cause prices to revert to the recent low of $76,600.
Analyst Matthew Hyland, who verified that BTC is “currently in position” for this major technical breakthrough, is seeing indications of a bullish RSI divergence on weekly timescale for the first time in six months. Rekt Capital pointed out that “The Daily RSI is showcasing early signs of retesting the Downtrend dating back to November 2024 as new support.”
Bitcoin Mining Industry Faces Multiple Headwinds Despite BTC Price Gains
Although the price of Bitcoin BTC/USD is still somewhat strong, the mining industry keeps facing major difficulties. Though network difficulty at 113.76 trillion at block 889, 081 on March 23 has increased 1.4%, the Bitcoin mining hashprice has been unchanged at roughly $48 per petahash per second (PH/s).
A hashrate less than $50 strains miners running older hardware including the Antminer S19 XP and S19 Pro financially, claims TheMinerMag. Some miners have been compelled by these conditions to temporarily stop mining until their equipment or network problems have improved.
Since the April 2024 Bitcoin halving event dropped the block subsidy to 3.125 BTC per block, the situation has been very challenging. JPMorgan’s research indicates that alone in February 2025, publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies lost 22% of their share value overall.
Financial strains are also affecting even miners who diversified their activities into artificial intelligence and high-performance computing data centers. Large artificial intelligence data centers have been under pressure with the publication of DeepSeek R1, an open-source AI model that performs somewhat better than top closed-source AI products but at a fraction of the cost.
Trump’s Trade War Concerns Offset Positive Regulatory Developments
Price consolidation of Bitcoin coincides with contradicting market signals. One could argue that numerous encouraging changes have surfaced:
- The Federal Reserve kept interest rates steady at 4.25%–4.50% and announced a slower pace of balance sheet runoff
- Fed Chair Jerome Powell described tariff-driven inflation as “transitory,” striking a dovish tone
- President Donald Trump declared the US the “undisputed Bitcoin superpower” and is pushing for pro-crypto policies
- Senator Cynthia Lummis proposed selling US gold reserves to acquire 1 million BTC over five years
But worries offset these bullish signals:
- The Fed raised its 2025 inflation forecast to 2.8% from 2.5% and cut GDP growth expectations to 1.7% from 2.1%
- Ongoing trade tensions between the United States and Canada threaten to impact energy prices for miners
- A European Central Bank official warned that Trump’s pro-crypto stance could trigger a global financial crisis
MicroStrategy Signals Imminent Bitcoin Purchase Following Capital Raise
SaylorTracker claims that Strategy most recently bought 130 BTC for $10.7 million on March 17, so increasing its overall holdings to 499,226 BTC. Strategy stays up over 28% on its BTC investment with more over $9.3 billion in unrealized gains despite the latest market slump.
Under a framework called “A Digital Assets Strategy to Dominate the 21st Century Global Economy,” Saylor keeps advocating for Bitcoin and lately suggests that the US government should acquire 25% of its total output by 2035.
Bitcoin’s Market Shows Signs of Decreased Speculative Activity
On-chain data shows a notable drop in market activity, which could help to explain Bitcoin’s rangebound pricing behavior. Glassnode’s studies indicate:
- The realized cap is growing at just +0.67% per month, down from 13.2% in December
- “Hot Supply,” tracking coins held for less than a week, has dropped by over 50%
- Exchange inflows have fallen from 58.6k BTC/day to 26.9k BTC/day, a 54% reduction
Long-term holders of Bitcoin keep accumulating it in spite of transient uncertainty. “Long-term holders continue to stack, as we have seen in on-chain data, the accumulation by these holders, quietly building since the dip is what we should be paying attention to,” Brickken’s market analyst Enmanuel Cardozo said.
From 13.1 million BTC on February 11 to over 13.3 million on March 22, Glassnode data shows that the overall Bitcoin supply kept by long-term holders has surged by over 250,000 BTC in less than two months.
As Stockmoney Lizards trading team came to find, “the long-term trend channel remains firmly intact while many are panicking and calling a bear market. This adjustment supports rather than negating the upswing.”
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