Bitcoin bulls fail to hold $21K, but pro traders refuse to flip bearish

cointelegraph.com:

147 days have passed since Bitcoin (BTC) closed above $25,000, and the result is that investors are less sure that the $20,000 support will hold. Backing these concerns are persistent global financial and macroeconomic tensions, which escalated on Nov. 7 after European Union officials expressed concerns over the $369 billion U.S. Inflation Reduction Act.

The extended tax, health and climate bill was approved in August and it also includes subsidies for electric cars and battery supply chains that are made in North America.

According to CNBC, this is not the first time that Europe has expressed its concerns, citing international trade rules and "discriminatory" policies.

There's additional uncertainty coming from the Nov. 8, U.S. midterm elections which will determine which party controls Congress. Currently, Democrats have a majority in the Lower House, but a change in this status could ease President Biden's future spending plans.

In other news, Apple announced a temporary reduction in iPhone 14 production due to Covid-19 restrictions in China. To put things in perspective, Apple's $2.2 trillion market capitalization has surpassed the sum of Alphabet (Google) and Amazon.

Let's look at Bitcoin derivatives data to understand if the worsening global macroeconomic conditions have impacted crypto investors.

Retail traders usually avoid quarterly futures due to their price difference from spot markets. Still, they are professional traders' preferred instruments because they prevent the fluctuation of funding rates that often occurs in a perpetual futures contract.

The three-month futures annualized premium should trade at +4% to +8% in healthy markets to cover costs and associated risks. The chart above shows that derivatives