Bitcoin Market Update: BTC bulls gripped by fear as long as the price below $9,400

• Bitcoin (BTC) fear and greed index is still on the fear territory.
• The recovery cannot gain traction due to market uncertainty.

Bitcoin (BTC) is changing hands at $9,200. The first digital coin is locked in a tight range limited by $9,000 on the downside and $9,400 on the upside; however, the local pivotal barrier is created by $9,200. If the coin settles above this level, the upside momentum will gain traction and BTC/USD will get a chance to retest the upper line of the above-mentioned range.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin's price has barely changed both since the beginning of the day and on a day-to-day basis. BTC has a market value of $169.3 billion and an average daily trading volume of $18.7 billion. Its market dominance settled at 62.6%.

Neither here no there

The fear and greed index calculated by Alternative.me, is still the Fear zone at 43, and the value of the index has barely changed in the recent month. Moreover, it is close to neutral position, which confirms the range-bound nature of the market and the high sense of uncertainty. As the theory goes, people are getting greedy, when the market is growing, and they tend to experience fear when the prices are falling. 

At this stage, the first digital coin is influenced by the global sentiments and may follow the lead of the US stock market, especially, if it goes down from the recent highs.

BTC/USD: Technical picture

On the intraday charts, BTC/USD bumped into a strong resistance created by a combination of 1-hour SMA100 and SMA50 on approach to $9,250. the price retreated from this area towards $9,200. If this local support stays unbroken, the price will resume the recovery and retest the above-said resistance. Otherwise, the sell-off may be extended towards $9,160 (the lower line of the 1-hour Bollinger Band) and $9,000.

On the upside,  a sustainable move above $9,345 (July 12 high) and $9,400 is needed for the upside to gain traction. Once this happens, the upside momentum may increase and push the price towards $9,500 followed by $9,800.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart