Bitcoin’s 2023 price action driven by the desire to regain losses, according to professional trader

Episode 7 of Cointelegraph’s Crypto Trading Secrets podcast is now live. This week’s episode features an interview with crypto trader Zoran Kole, who goes by @Captain_Kole1 on Twitter. Kole shared his opinions in response to a number of questions asked by host Benjamin Pirus during the episode’s recording on March 1 — including his views on what he thinks has most impacted the price of Bitcoin (BTC) so far in 2023 (as of the show’s recording), and whether or not that may remain the case for the remainder of the year. 

Bitcoin started off 2023 trading between $16,000 and $17,000, according to Cointelegraph’s BTC price index. The asset found itself up near $24,000 toward the end of January and surpassed $25,000 in February. The coin subsequently dropped back down below $20,000 in March, but has since moved up past $26,000. 

“There have been murmurs that Binance is buying up a lot of the Bitcoin using their BUSD,” Kole said. Binance USD (BUSD) is a stablecoin under the Binance brand but issued by Paxos Trust Company, and it faced regulatory uncertainty in February. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has asserted that Paxos wholly owns and oversees BUSD. Kole, however, thinks 2023’s price action so far may be the result of prolonged price suppression and people’s desire to gain back their 2022 losses:

“To phrase it more simply, in 2023, I think the allure of making it back in one trade is kind of the reason that prices have propelled up since the beginning of the year.”

However, Kole doesn’t exactly think that rationale will remain in play for the whole year. He explained:

“I do expect a lot of range-bound behavior to occur. So, all the buyers that were able to buy $15,000, $16,000, $17,000 are probably going to look to distribute somewhere in the upper $20,000s, lower $30,000s. So, I do think we’re going to see quite a bit of chop going into the end of the year.”

Kole also answered several other questions during the episode, including giving his thoughts on potential future cycles for BTC.