A WSJ report on a US probe into Tether triggered Bitcoin prices to dump. But, after Tether CEO denies WSJ's report, the price is slowly recovering. And imagine if WSJ's report were true, the bullish trend may be delayed for the next year.
That's why i don't have a very high expectation for BTC to break a very high price coz there will always be a pullback. Surpassing 70k, then steadily trading between 70k - 80k range is good enough.
There is a rumor about Tether every year and it has become so boring that I think people don't believe it anymore. But surprisingly, after the Fud was announced, the bitcoin price still dropped to $65,500 and quickly recovered afterward. This makes me think that the market is more manipulated than we think.
What makes me less optimistic is the uncertainty about the world situation. Hours after the Tether news, news of Israel's retaliation against Iran further roiled the market and caused even greater concern. With what is going on, I am not really optimistic about bitcoin's strong growth this year, things will get worse if the war becomes more fierce.
If we expect a bull run for bitcoin this year, the only hope we can hope for is the US election. If Trump wins, I think that will make the market forget about the war for a while.
It is beyond doubt manipulated, but I think that manipulation maybe lower these days than they used to be as single players in the market have less weight and therefore less impact. Unless there is a very high level of collusion going on, it is far more risky these days to try some shenanigans as you never fully know what the market will do next. Assuming that someone wants to crash the market, what could that be good for other than harming their own portfolio or risking that the market rebounds much quicker than expected and the person dumping would have to buy back at a higher price?
I know that OP is a little older, but predicting what Bitcoin will do within a particular year isn't expedient at all I think. It can be fun, but that's it. Rather focus on what Bitcoin will do in the long run. Having an eye on what it is doing in the present is good because it keeps you in the loop, but giving weekly estimates as to where the price will be on a Sunday, meh.