Down but not out. Bitcoin's stair-step bullish trajectory is still intact

Bitcoin BTC$84,264.23 is on the back foot Wednesday. Its bigger bullish pattern is still holding.

The cryptocurrency fell to $84,200 early Wednesday, down over 2% from near $86,500 on Tuesday, according to CoinDesk data. But it's still trading inside the range it has held for the past two weeks, and that keeps a months-long bullish stair-step trajectory alive.

"The October 7 decline does not invalidate Bitcoin's stair-step rise," Vikram Subburaj, CEO of Indian crypto exchange Giottus, told CoinDesk.

Since July, bitcoin has climbed in a series of flat ranges, each higher than the last. On a chart, it looks like a set of stairs, which is why it's known as a stair-step pattern. As seen in the feature image, the sharp rallies are the climb from one stair to the next, and the weeks of sideways trading are the flat steps in between.

From mid-July to Aug. 18, it traded between roughly $62,000 and $67,000. Then it jumped 21% in three days.

The next step ran from late August to mid-September, between about $76,000 and $81,500. Another sudden jump followed, a 6.6% gain from Sept. 19 to Sept. 21.

Since then, bitcoin has held between about $83,000 and $87,000.