Bitcoin Traders Split Over $114,000 CME Gap Fill

Key points:

  • Bitcoin seals another multi-week low, this time filling a July gap in CMEโ€™s Bitcoin futures market.

  • Traders hold mixed views of where BTC price will head next.

  • US trade tariffs appear to impact Bitcoin and crypto more than US stocks.

Bitcoin (BTC) hit new three-week lows Friday as US trade tariffs soured market sentiment.

BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

BTC price ticks off $114,000 CME gap

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD falling to $114,322 on Bitstamp before bouncing.

In doing so, the pair entirely filled a โ€œgapโ€ in CME Groupโ€™s Bitcoin futures markets left over from July.

As Cointelegraph continues to report, price tends to โ€œfillโ€ these gaps, which often appear at weekends, within weeks, days or even hours of the market reopening.

โ€œWe should see a nice upwards movement now,โ€ crypto investor and entrepreneur Ted Pillows predicted in part of a response on X.

Some market participants remained cautious. Bitcoin, they argued, needed to show more strength to avoid the risk of a further breakdown.

โ€œNow that the gap is tapped, we watch closely,โ€ popular trader Cipher X told X followers, flagging $104,000 as a potential downside target if $116,000 was not reclaimed.

Popular trader Crypto Candy said the price needed Fridayโ€™s daily close to be above the $115,00-$116,700 area.

โ€œIf it fails to sustain, then we may see it at the 111.8k area before the next leg up to ATH,โ€ he warned.

BTC/USDT 1-day chart. Source: Crypto Candy/X

Bitcoin suffers while stocks shrug off tariffs

Bitcoin thus fell harder than risk assets on the day as the Donald Trump administration enacted sweeping reciprocal tariffs.

Related: 7% dip or $141K breakout? Bitcoin speculators dictate BTC price targets

By comparison, S&P 500 futures were down a modest 0.4% at the time of writing before the Wall Street open.

Commenting, trading resource The Kobeissi Letter saw the market already comfortable with trade war surprises, acclimatizing since April.

โ€œThe market says the trade war has lost all credibility,โ€ it summarized, suggesting that S&P losses would have hit 3% had the tariffs gone ahead four months ago.

S&P 500 futures 1-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Stocks nonetheless joined Bitcoin in whipsaw moves, the day prior having seen the S&P in all-time high territory thanks to tech earnings beating expectations.ย 

This came despite the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, known as the Federal Reserveโ€™s โ€œpreferredโ€ inflation gauge, coming in above estimates.

US PCE data (screenshot). Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis

Earlier in the week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell struck a hawkish tone while leaving interest rates unchanged, leading markets to price out rate cuts in 2025 โ€” a headwind for risk assets.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.