BTC unbudged

A federal judge in New York is set to rule on a motion filed by attorneys for jailed FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried who is seeking a temporary, supervised respite from confinement so he can prepare for trial.

Bitcoin, meanwhile, seems content to remain on strict lockdown right around $26,000. A recent low below $25,900 was hit Saturday.

The industry's foremost digital asset for the better part of August had jogged in place on a $29,000 porch before tumbling over the railing into the underbrush where it continues to hide.

As of Tuesday, at 7:29 a.m. (EST), BTC lurked near $26,050 on a slight (+0.3%) rise in 24 hours. For risk assets, a trying time of tribulations may stretch into the back part of the year as central banks battle inflation by keeping interest rates high. BTC is down 11% in the past week.

Bankman-Fried, charged with defrauding investors in his FTX exchange, faces trial in October.

An emerald hue came over the largest crypto, albeit faintly. But the same can't be said for a slew of major coins.

Among Big Ten digital assets, there's a cherry-red tint. The steepest loss since yesterday has been turned in by Cardano (ADA). As of 7:54 a.m. (EST), per CoinGecko, ADA was $0.258976, reflecting a decline of 3% in 24 hours. ADA, which ranks as the eighth-largest coin in terms of total market capitalization, is down roughly 10% in the past week. So is Ethereum for that matter. The most severe seven-day beating endured by any big-cap coin is No. 5 XRP's 17.5% loss. No. 9 Dogecoin and No. 10 Solana fell 15% and 16%, respectively, in that span.

ADA's slide continues despite on-chain data showing development activity on Cardano surpassing all networks in the past month.

"Buy the dip" mentions on Reddit, X (formerly Twitter), Telegram and 4Chan rose, flattened and fell just in the past few days, suggesting, Santiment says, that pessimism is taking hold in the land of hodlrs.

Yep, bearish momentum is taking over, that is, if the 14-day relative strength indicator (RSI) reading (below 30) means anything; and it can: the RSI indicator (using a 0 to 100 scale) etches a portrait of recent price movement relative to average price movement over a period of time, usually two weeks.

A reading below 30 means BTC is mired in conditions that can be described as oversold, a term that often connotes cooler-head opportunities.

But an oversold RSI reading simply means prices have dropped too quickly and that's not necessarily a good thing. Like the old saying goes, as CoinDesk notes, "indicators can stay oversold longer than dip buyers can stay solvent."