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Bitcoin price needs to hold $9,270 to avoid dropping to the $8,000 range again.
This week Bitcoin (BTC) price has struggled to overcome resistance at $9,600 and at the time of writing the top-ranked cryptocurrency on CoinMarketCap is finding support near $9,400.Crypto market daily performance. Source: Coin360Technical analysis shows there is a strong support level at $9,270 and if Bitcoin price drops below it a steep pullback could occur.To many traders the $9,000 and $9,270 levels are considered as the last lines of defence for buyers, and protecting these levels is critical to prevent another price decline to the $8,000s.What’s next if $9,270 breaks?In the last 24 hours, the price of Bitcoin attempted to break below $9,270 in a rapid sell-off from $9,400 to $9,240. Immediately after it hit $9,240, BTC bounced strongly to as high as $9,450.XBT-USD range since June 12 with $9,270 acting as a strong support level. Source: TradingView.comBitcoin has essentially been in the same range since June 11, with the $9,200 range acting as a support area. BTC dropped to the $9,000 level once in the past eight days, demonstrating relatively low volatility compared to May.The lack of volatility since early June can be attributed to the strength of buyers at $9,270. Sellers are trying to take BTC back to the $8,000s but data shows bulls are defending the $9,000 to $9,200 with large orders primarily on BitMEX and OKEx.On June 18, Bitcoin trader Edward Morra wrote that $40 million worth of limit orders were filed between $9,270 and $9,350 on BitMEX alone. The trader said:“More than $40M stacked in limit orders around $9,350 – $9,270 on Bitmex. Don’t seem to be pulled for now, quite an effort needed from bears to push through it.”The abundance of buy orders in the low-$9,000 region caused BTC to recover quickly as soon as it reached $9,000 or $9,200 in the past several days but support levels can weaken after multiple retests in a short period of time.If the $9,000 to $9,270 range breaks down, traders anticipate a steep pullback to occur in the Bitcoin market.Cryptocurrency trader Satoshi Flipper noted that the breakdown below the $9,200 support can cause a drop to the $8,600 to $8,700 support range in the near-term.BTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView.comOpen interest is building at futures exchangesBTC futures open interest. Source: SkewOpen interest at multiple futures exchanges is also rising as $930 million in BTC options are expected to expire on June 26. BitMEX, in particular, saw its open interest stabilize above $600 million.This is important because when open interest reaches record levels the probability of a long or short squeeze increases in the short-term.Thus, the market is currently at a point where traders anticipate a large price movement from Bitcoin and the upcoming $930 million BTC options expiry re-enforces the likelihood that Bitcoin price will see increased volatility over the coming week.Bitcoin daily price chart. Source: Coin360The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $265.7 billion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 65%.Keep track of top crypto markets in real time here