The week started well: on September 2, bitcoin rose by 3.19% to $59,132 due to the Labor Day holiday in the United States. Investors watched S&P 500 futures. There was no bad news about the crypto industry, so buyers raised the price on the low-liquidity market.
But on September 3, things changed. The BTC/USD pair fell 2.78% to $57,487. Over nine days, the price fell 14.4% from $65,000 to $55,606. The fall was in sync with U.S. stock indices. Low liquidity and active use of leverage increased volatility.
On September 4, bitcoin recovered slightly, closing at $57,970. The uptick wasn't strong enough to reverse the local downtrend.
On September 5, the market got worse. BTC/USD fell 3.09% to $55,643. Investors were nervous before the US labor market data was released. Weak economic reports this week made people think the US economy might slow down. The market was pressured by the continued outflow of funds from US bitcoin ETFs.
September 6 was the most important day of the week. After the August US labor data came out, the market got very volatile. The price of bitcoin rose to $57,008, then fell to $52,550, losing 7.8% in 9 hours. Bitcoin ended the day down 3.95% at $53,962.
The US labor market report for August 2024 showed some good and some bad news. There were 142,000 new jobs, which was less than the 160,000 that people expected and less than the average over the past 12 months. The unemployment rate was 4.2%, which was a little higher than a year ago. But the good news was that average hourly earnings rose 3.8% year-over-year, which was more than people expected.
On September 7, the BTC/USDt pair rebounded from a low of $52,550 by 3.7% to $54,585. However, risk-aversion in traditional markets is still pressuring cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin has been in a sideways trend for 177 days. The drop below $57,130 makes it unlikely that the price will reach $69k soon. The key resistance level is now $59,800. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the price to return to it. BitRiver forecasts that the maximum growth potential is limited to $64,700 before the US Federal Reserve meeting on September 18.