Pinned below $11K, Bitcoin price plays second fiddle to Uniswap (UNI)

As the weekend begins, Bitcoin (BTC) price continues to fluctuate between the $10,800-$11,000 range. 

Cryptocurrency daily market performance snapshot. Source: Coin360

Some analysts would say the digital asset has lost momentum but a quick glance at the 1-hour or 4-hour chart shows Bitcoin chugging along sideways in a defined range which is starting to see some compression. 

BTC/USDT 1-hr chart. Source: TradingView

Despite what appears to be ‘disinterest’ from crypto traders, Bitcoin price is painting higher lows and lower highs and if this pattern continues a breakout should be expected before the weekly close. Of course predicting the direction of this breakout is the hard part. 

If the breakout were to the upside, the overhead resistance at $11,150 and $11,600 will make any attempts at $12,000 difficult. 

In the event that the price breaks downward, traders would expect support at $10,550 but the gap from $10,826 to $10,480 on the volume profile visible range suggests that $10,490-$10,400 is where the price would park.

Hence, at the moment the risk-to-reward odds for the average trader are not very enticing, especially when compared to the juicy price action seen from the likes of UniSwap’s UNI token which rallied another 124% on Friday. 

UNI/USD daily price action. Source: CoinMarketCap

In fact, data from DeFi Pulse shows the total value locked in UniSwap DEX reached $1.75 billion as traders stampeded back to the platform to acquire various DeFi-related tokens or earn high interest from yield farming. 

Total USD value locked in Uniswap. Source: DeFi Pulse

Over the past 24-hours the platform has seen an 80% increase in inflow and it’s possible that the intense focus of traders chasing DeFi profits is reducing demand for Bitcoin as centralized exchanges have registered a drop in spot volumes. 

Bitcoin spot aggregated daily volumes. Source: Skew.com

Given that demand for DeFi-related tokens is likely to increase, traders might keep an eye on the price of Ether as the altcoin has already gained 10% since the start of the week and could rally to $422 if bulls can push the price through the high volume VPVR node at $392. 

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