Bitcoin dips 3.6% from weekly highs — What are the key BTC price levels to watch?

Bitcoin (BTC) threatened a significant retracement overnight into March 23 as weekly highs saw their first test.

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

BTC misses out on "very bullish" daily close

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD dipping from a peak of $43,337 to lows of $41,779 on Bitstamp before recovering.

At the time of writing, the pair traded at around $42,300 — still $1,000 off the highs.

Enthusiasm had been clearly in evidence on Tuesday thanks to increasing publicity focused on Blockchain protocol Terra's apparent $3 billion BTC buy-in.

According to co-founder Do Kwon, the majority of the funds, which were to be used to back Terra's new TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin, had not yet been purchased, leaving room for more potential BTC price squeezes.

Nonetheless, the mood cooled on markets overnight, Bitcoin missing what would have been a "very bullish" daily close by around $200.

#Bitcoin closing the Daily candle above $42.6k would be very bullish

— Matthew Hyland (@MatthewHyland_) March 22, 2022

Analyst Matthew Hyland was confident that the "tide was turning" for Bitcoin, however, among other things pointing to an ongoing breakout attempt for Bitcoin's daily relative strength index (RSI).

Its downtrend, he noted, had been in place since even before November's all-time high.

BTC/USD with RSI annotated chart. Source: Matthew Hyland/ Twitter

Trader Credible Crypto meanwhile highlighted a similar level at $42,500 as important to flip.

"42.5k has been broken, now want to see this level established as support if this is a true breakout," he wrote in a Twitter update on the day.

"Meaning, the move up should hold and want to see some consolidation above this level for continuation. Let's see what we get over the next day or two."

European Central Bank sees new balance sheet record

On macro, news that Thailand had decided to ban crypto for payments provided a sour mood from Asia, while in Europe, the European Central Bank's (ECB) balance sheet rose to record highs.

Related: $43K BTC flipping support? Not anytime soon, according to derivative metrics

Now at more than €8.7 trillion ($9.59 trillion), markets commentator Holger Zschaepitz began to query whether "the sky's the limit" for ECB asset purchases.

"Only the sky is the limit? ECB Balance Sheet has hit fresh ATH >€8.7tn. Total assets rose by another €13bn as ECB keeps buying bonds despite record-high," he summarized Wednesday alongside a chart from Bloomberg Terminal.

"Eurozone inflation. Balance Sheet now equal to 82% of Eurozone GDP vs. Fed's 37%, and BoJ's 136%."