Bitcoin bulls are not giving up without a fight in the current range, while data increases the significance of May’s $23,800 floor.

Bitcoin (BTC) recovered to $30,000 prior to the June 2 Wall Street open as feet remained cold across crypto markets.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

“Crucial breaker rejecting” on Bitcoin

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD climbing to local highs of $30,182 on Bitstamp after wicking down to near $29,300 overnight.

Amid testing times for equities, Bitcoin followed in giving up recent gains, with Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe insisting that $29,000 needed to hold to avoid more serious retracement.

“Cascade further south for Bitcoin towards the level that caused the breakout,” he summarized on the day.

“Resistances above us are $30.5K and $31.5K. Let’s see how it goes, has to hold $29.2–$29.3K to avoid any massive breakdowns.”

A subsequent tweet highlighted what Van de Poppe described as an intraday “crucial breaker” level acting as resistance.

Analyzing what led Bitcoin to reverse downward, meanwhile, on-chain analytics resource Material Indicators pointed the finger at large-volume investors engineering volatility.

“Large orders chased price to the top, then switched sides, alongside whales starting to market-sell. Now, some buying by $1M+ on support,” part of an explanatory Twitter post read.

BTC/USD thus remained firmly in a narrow trading range in place since the second week of May.

Positivity creeps in over BTC price floor

Meanwhile, one of the industry’s best-known figures gave cause to consider that much deeper corrections may not be in store for Bitcoin.

Related: Price analysis 6/1: BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, ADA, SOL, DOGE, DOT, AVAX, SHIB

In his latest blog post released on June 2, Arthur Hayes, former CEO of derivatives giant BitMEX, argued that last month’s bottom could well have been the bottom that everyone was looking for.

He flagged data from on-chain analytics firm Glassnode, which presented BTC/USD drawdowns from all-time highs over the years.

Looking back at past halving cycles, there should be strong support at around $25,000, given that $69,000 marked the latest all-time high.

“Don’t take these levels as an exact science. There could be an exchange that traded at a higher or lower intraday level than what’s observed on glassnode,” Hayes reasoned.

“The point is to be generally correct, and with a bit of fudging around the edges we can approximate a range that corresponds to what we believe is the local bottom. For Bitcoin, that’s $25,000 to $27,000. For Ether, that’s $1,700 to $1,800.”

BTC/USD drawdown from all-time highs annotated chart. Source: Arthur Hayes/ Entrepreneur’s Handbook

As Cointelegraph reported, however, the same data had been used earlier in the week to deliver a more bearish BTC price target.

Hayes, himself, has said that he would be a “buyer” of Bitcoin at $20,000 and Ether (ETH) at $1,300.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.