Bitcoin order book moves spark suspicion

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed the latest BTC price uptick running out of steam after reaching $62,775 on Bitstamp.

Now down 3% versus the daily open, BTC/USD faced significant resistance above the $62,000 mark, with analysis suggesting that this could be intentional manipulation.

“Someone placed large sell orders from $61200-$62500, Total 12K BTC,” monitoring resource CoinGlass responded on X reviewing the Binance order book.

“This is somewhat unreasonable.”

Binance BTC/USDT order book liquidity heatmap. Source: CoinGlass/X

Popular trader Daan Crypto Trades noted the imbalance between bid and ask liquidity, with buyers still lacking volume from the day prior.

“$750M in orders above & $300M in orders below price. And that's just on Binance,” he told X followers.

“This could temporarily cool off volatility for a while as price is stuck between these walls. Keep in mind, walls can get pulled at any time. Some consolidation makes sense I feel like.”

BTC liquidation heatmap (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass

As Cointelegraph has reported, large-volume traders often place a series of orders above or below the spot price to move the market in a given direction. The practice, known as spoofing, is commonplace across crypto markets.

Mixed thoughts on BTC price status quo

Traders broadly remained at odds over BTC price strength.

Related: Bitcoin price must flip $62K to avoid worst ‘death cross’ consequences

While some expected another sizeable downward move, others looked to long-term trendlines as proof of a sustained recovery and potential further upside next.

BTC/USDT chart. Source: Moustache/X

“$BTC is back above the daily EMA 200 line. A reclaim of this line has always led to a sharp rise in prices in recent years,” popular trader Moustache commented, referring to the 200-day exponential moving average at $59,438.

Trader and analyst Rekt Capital hoped that bulls could muster a downtrend breakout by the daily close.