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Bitcoin (BTC) struggled to maintain bullish momentum on Jan. 30 as the countdown to the monthly close kept the market nervous.

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

BTC price sees flash dip below $23,000

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD coming off its latest highs at just below $24,000 on the day.

These, while Bitcoin’s best performance for nearly six months, encountered problems with staying power as the week began, with pre-Wall Street trading seeing a brief trip below $23,000.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin traded at around $23,250 as United States equities limped into the final few days of January.

Among the topics of interest for analysts was the CME Bitcoin futures gap from the weekend getting swiftly “filled” by spot.

“Gaps” in the futures chart often act as a short-term price magnet for spot once futures markets reopen after weekends. Another remained open between roughly $19,970 and $20,530.

“CME gaps filled and overshooting now bc of Equity futures being negative,” popular trader John Wick wrote in his latest Twitter update.

“We’re in for a wild week!”

CME Bitcoin futures 1-hour candle chart. Source: TradingView

Analytics resource Material Indicators meanwhile focused on order book activity on Binance, with longs and shorts potentially signalling upward continuation.

“Sometimes looking at leveraged assets on binance can give clues to what is happening with the underlying. BTCDOWN is at resistance and BTCUP is approaching support,” commentary on a chart of longs and shorts stated.

“Things don’t have to play out as these charts indicate, but so far they correlate with current BTC PA.”

BTC/USD longs/ short charts (Binance). Source: Material Indicators/ Twitter

Bitcoin analyst “not convinced”

On whether Bitcoin would make good on weeks of upside before the monthly close, others were far from confident.

Related: Best January since 2013? 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week

Among them was Crypto Ed, who in a note to followers said that he was “not convinced yet” over Bitcoin’s overall strength.

BTC/USD annotated chart. Source: Crypto Ed/ Twitter

An accompanying chart presented a possible retest of $22,000 as a downside target.

As Cointelegraph reported, the area around $25,000 had constituted a significant cloud of resistance for Bitcoin, being an area of significant potential short liquidations.

That price nonetheless remained a popular target should bulls recover their firepower.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.