Bitcoin (BTC) faced a new threat of a dip below $40,000 on April 8 as short timeframes failed to rescue bulls.

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

Bitcoin risks return to $38,000 support

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD consolidating in a range bounded by $44,000 prior to April 8’s Wall Street open.

The pair had reduced volatility after a comedown from 2022 highs during the week, but analysts warned that a return to the year’s established trading range was a clear next step.

“BTC is in the process of trying to turn the ~$43,100 area into support. If it fails to do that & ~$43K turns into resistance… BTC will confirm a return to the $38 thousand–$43 thousand range, which was home to consolidation earlier this year,” popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital summarized in his latest Twitter update.

“Until then — retest in progress.”

Also eyeing a fresh leg down was Crypto Ed, who flagged a failed breakout attempt at $44,000 as a signal for potential bearish continuation.

In a YouTube update on the day, he additionally highlighted $40,000 as the next logical bearish target.

Rekt Capital dealt a potential silver lining in the form of BTC/USD preserving its 50-week exponential moving average (EMA) after an earlier breakout — something that, in times past, had “preceded immense upside,” he noted.

BTC/USD 1-week candle chart (Bitstamp) with 50-week EMA. Source: TradingView

Bitcoin 2022 passes markets by

The lackluster price performance accompanied the ongoing Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami, which despite various attention-grabbing speeches and announcements from big industry names, failed to lift market sentiment.

Related: Bitcoin 2022: Thiel calls Buffett ‘sociopathic,’ Mexican billionaire has 60% in BTC

PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel caught the limelight with a keynote speech in which he listed Warren Buffett, the ESG movement and others as among Bitcoin’s U.S. “enemies.”

“If we had to summarize this in one frame, it is the finance gerontocracy that runs the country through whatever silly virtue-signalling/ hate factory term like ESG that they have versus what we have to think of as a revolutionary youth movement,” he told the audience.

ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood, meanwhile, doubled down on a prediction that Bitcoin would cost $1 million by 2030.

The Wood-managed ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) traded down over 34% year-to-date on April 8, heavily underperforming Bitcoin, itself.

ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) vs. BTC/USD chart. Source: TradingView

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