Bitcoin (BTC) dropped to $67,500 on Friday, briefly trading under its 200-week simple moving average for the first time in 11 weeks, according to TradingView data cited in market coverage. The long-term trend line sits at $67,993 and has not been tested since Aug. 19.
The 200-week moving average has long served as a marker of cycle extremes for Bitcoin, acting as support in bear markets and resistance on the way back up. The price hovered around the line from March to October 2023, and again from June through mid-August this year, before decisive weekly closes above it preceded stronger rallies.
Keith Alan, co-founder of crypto analytics platform Material Indicators, pointed to a confluence between the 200-week average and a support-resistance flip on Bitcoin's weekly relative strength index. The momentum gauge has returned to 41.5, a level it established as support in late July after several weeks of attempting a breakout.
"Losing 41.5 on Weekly RSI opens the door to test the cycle low at $57.7k," Alan wrote Friday on X, while noting the bullish case if the support zone holds.
Note: SMA stands for simple moving average; RSI stands for relative strength index.
The pullback in crypto coincided with a risk-off tone in global equities after Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia (NVDA) chief executive. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index closed 1.55% lower and South Korea's KOSPI Composite Index finished down 0.98%. US futures also softened, with Nasdaq 100 contracts off 0.2% as traders weighed whether capital would rotate toward Nvidia's rivals in advanced chip design, keeping the artificial intelligence trade intact.
"What you're seeing in markets now is a bit of a rotation into other advanced chip design companies, on the assumption that this will enable other companies effectively to catch up," said Mark Franklin, head of multi-asset solutions for Asia at Manulife Investment Management.
Nvidia shares were 0.7% higher in pre-market trading, helped by reports of employee backing for Huang's return; an internal post drew more than 1,600 comments.
For crypto traders, the focus now rests on whether Bitcoin can reclaim the 200-week average on a weekly close. A sustained break below the line, combined with a weekly RSI reading under 41.5, would put the $57,700 cycle low back in play, while a defense of the zone would keep the recovery structure intact. The overlap with equity-market volatility adds a further variable, since digital assets have traded in step with technology shares during periods of risk aversion.
