Bitcoin (BTC<\/a>) narrowed its consolidation range on March 18 as the TradFi trading week looked set to end with $40,000 still in place.<\/p>\n Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro<\/a> and TradingView<\/a>\u00a0showed BTC\/USD preserving $40,000 support overnight, and with it the area highlighted<\/a> as “crucial” by analysis Thursday.<\/p>\n Macro cues had lessened following the United States Federal Reserve rate hike confirmation, with a lack of new triggers from Europe steadying markets overall.<\/p>\n For popular trader Crypto Ed, the next few days should see either a continuation to a target zone of $43,000 or a breakdown of the current trend.<\/p>\n Analyzing his Elliot Wave setup for the 4-hour BTC\/USD chart, however, he noted that the cycle was “still bearish” prior to a range high of $45,000 being broken \u2014 something which could happen after another few consolidatory moves in between.<\/p>\n Those moves, specifically a strong bounce during the retracement, “would be my signal to go long,” he said in a YouTube update<\/a> Thursday.<\/p>\n Other participants were increasingly bullish on the outlook, too, with Twitter trader Zima even highlighting a long-term trend breakout for on-balance volume (OBV).<\/p>\n As Cointelegraph previously reported<\/a>, increasing OBV reflects growing demand for an asset at the current traded price, and for Bitcoin, the time appeared to be night for exiting a sideways price zone in place since as far back as January 2021.<\/p>\n “I haven\u2019t moved a single line on my OBV since I started tracking the move 8 weeks ago,” Zima commented<\/a>. <\/p>\n “We have broken out of the wedge to the top side and are flipping the 20 day OBVMA. We are on the cusp of a multi month bullish continuation after a year of crab.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Fellow account Allen Au added to the optimism, eyeing a potential move out of Bitcoin’s 2022 range with $46,000 as its top.<\/p>\n #BTC<\/a> is on the verge of breaking out to the upside as confirmed by technical indicators.<\/p>\n It’s trading inside an Ascending Parallel Channel w\/ resistance at $45K-$46K & support at $35K-$36K. But ST in apattern. <\/p>\n If BTC breaks out of both patterns:<\/p>\n T1: $49K-$52K \u2014 Allen Au (@AllenAu11) March 17, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The week came with a new achievement for Bitcoin network growth, notably the Lightning Network, which passed 3,500 BTC capacity<\/a>.<\/p>\n Related:\u00a0Bitcoin faces new \u2018milestone\u2019 in 2022 as new forecast predicts BTC price \u2018in the millions\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Part of the so-called “Layer 2” technology on Bitcoin, Lightning allows instantaneous off-chain transactions to be sent en masse<\/em> at practically zero cost.<\/p>\n The technology has been in place for several years, and has quietly grown<\/a> behind the scenes to cater to increasing volume and mainstream consumers.<\/p>\n “Don’t sleep on the Lightning Network, which continues to grow at an impressive pace,” on-chain analyst Dylan LeClair commented<\/a> on the statistics.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/s3.cointelegraph.com\/uploads\/2022-03\/c88200fc-6134-433a-9950-1a6ef90b6030.png\")
Traders patiently await paradigm shift<\/h2>\n
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T2: $57K-$59K pic.twitter.com\/GyzgYujEuh<\/a><\/p>\nLightning Network reaches new capacity highs<\/h2>\n
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