Before the opening of Wall Street on January 17, Bitcoin experienced a decline in its intraday value, coinciding with renewed criticism from mainstream sources at the World Economic Forum (WEF).

TradingView data indicated a decrease in Bitcoin's price to $42,400 on the Bitstamp exchange.

The premier cryptocurrency, still confined within a tight range following last week's fluctuations, struggled to maintain $43,000 as a support level, largely due to a widespread lack of market liquidity.

The sentiment was further dampened by comments from JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon at the WEF's annual event in Davos, Switzerland. Speaking to CNBC, Dimon asserted that Bitcoin “does nothing.”

He elaborated, “I’m not trying to make a joke here; there are use cases: AML, fraud, Anti-Money Laundering, tax avoidance, sex trafficking,” reiterating familiar criticisms of Bitcoin that have largely been discredited.

“Those are real use cases, and you see it being used for hundreds, maybe $50–$100 billion a year for that. That is the end use case.”

Dimon also declared his intention to avoid discussing Bitcoin in the future, requesting the network presenters to “stop talking” about it.

When questioned about his views on the recent launch of several spot Bitcoin ETFs, he expressed indifference towards other companies adopting Bitcoin.

Regarding his opinion on Bitcoin versus blockchain technologies and other functional currencies, he said, “I don’t know what he would say about blockchain versus currencies that do something versus Bitcoin that does nothing; it may be a lot different than me,” referring to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, whose iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) ETF witnessed over $700 million in inflows in just three days.

“But this is what makes a market — people have opinions, and this is the last time I’m ever going to state my opinion.”

Concerning short-term BTC price trends, experienced traders signaled challenging times ahead.

Daan Crypto Trades commented that the era of straightforward trading conditions for BTC/USD is now past, making the market difficult to predict.

“After last week’s drop, BTC is just ranging and chopping people up. I am in no rush to take any actions and happy just waiting for clear opportunities,” he said to his X followers on the same day.

“Easy mode was the past weeks/months. Not now.”

He shared a chart displaying the current trading range's high, low, and midpoint.

Crypto Tony, another trader, anticipated the continuation of this trading range, possibly with a lower boundary in the high $30,000s.

“I expect Bitcoin to range between $47,000 and $38,000 over the next few months. More attention to Altcoins to come,” he concluded.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/btc-price-slips-42-4-k-jpmorgan-ceo-jamie-dimon-bitcoin

https://www.tradingview.com/symbols/BTCUSD/?exchange=BINANCE

https://twitter.com/SquawkCNBC/status/1747598755233218884

https://twitter.com/DaanCrypto/status/1747590339538702739

https://twitter.com/CryptoTony__/status/1747528683093455204