The long awaited bitcoin correction could be beginning as the king of crypto drops over 10 percent from yesterday’s high. A flash crash that wiped out $2,000 in two hours was quickly recovered but those gains haven’t held as prices start to go south again.
First Red Bitcoin Candle In Over a Week
Pulses quickened in crypto land when a flash crash wiped $2k off the price of Bitcoin within an hour or so yesterday. A couple of exchanges even suffered outages, no doubt to traffic surge from panicked traders. A quick recovery followed as BTC pushed back over $13k within the next couple of hours but those larger red candles started to accumulate soon after.
Within 12 hours of the last 2019 top, Bitcoin had lost 10 percent in a plunge back down to $12,100. Bitcoin has just registered its first red candle on the daily chart for eight days and it has not had a run like this since late 2017. On the hourly chart there have been several tests of the 50 moving average but price has yet to break below it.
BTC prices 24 hours. Coinmarketcap.com
Daily volume hit an all-time high of $45 billion a few hours ago so a natural cooling off is expected. BTC market capitalization also peaked at $245 billion but $25 billion has left the digital asset since then. Also at a one year high was BTC transaction fees which hit $5.837 yesterday according to bitinfocharts.com.
Many are now revisiting calls for that 30 percent plus correction that has happened multiple times during the previous uptrend. Pullbacks are a natural part of market cycles and parabolic, almost vertical, charts patterns are not.
A 30% drop from the latest peak will send BTC back to $9,600, where solid resistance once was. It has now become a level of support along with $11,500 which is where things could go in the shorter term.
Altcoins Not Decoupling Yet
As things cool off for Bitcoin, the altcoins are starting to dump in greater volumes. There has been no decoupling of them yet and a sea of red has enveloped the crypto charts during Asian trading today. Many had anticipated an altseason to start when Bitcoin finally corrects but this has yet to materialize.
In the top ten there are double digit dumps for Litecoin and EOS which have both lost over 10 percent dropping back to $120 and $6.50 respectively. BSV, Cosmos and Ethereum Classic have been smashed 12 percent and other low cap alts have lost even more.
Total market capitalization has dropped $40 billion from its latest 2019 peak of $387 billion. It is currently at around $350 billion which is still up 20 percent on this time last week.
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