The crypto market has found itself caught within an intense downtrend over the past day, with Bitcoin and most major altcoins incurring intense selloffs that have led them to erase the majority of the gains incurred throughout the early months of 2020.

It appears that this Bitcoin-driven selloff has been catalyzed by a massive influx of selling pressure from traders on margin trading platforms, who have been offloading significant amounts of cryptocurrency over the past several hours.

If this selling pressure doesn’t relent in the days ahead, it is highly probable that the crypto markets will see further near-term downside.

Bitcoin Leads Massive Crypto Market Selloff 

Bitcoin and the aggregated crypto market have posted notable losses today, which has been driven by BTC’s recent rejection at $9,200 that sparked a sharp movement to the support that had been established within the upper-$8,000 region.

Currently, Bitcoin is trading down roughly 9% at its current price of $8,250, which marks a significant decline from its daily highs of $9,200.

This massive selloff has led many altcoins to also plummet lower, with some shedding as much as 20% of their value over the past 24-hours.

Ethereum and XRP are both trading down 14% at their current prices of $208 and $0.20, which marks a nearly full retrace of all the gains that had been posted throughout January and February.

Mohit Sorout – a partner at Bitazu capital and a popular analyst – spoke about this market-wide movement in a recent tweet, explaining that selloffs like this are typically followed days or weeks of consolidation.

“No point in knife catching BTC. Massive OI-decimating moves are followed by days/weeks of consolidation once price finds a floor. There’ll be plenty of time to position yourself. Wait for it,” he explained.

No point in knife catching $btc

Massive OI-decimating moves are followed by days/weeks of consolidation once price finds a floor.

There'll be plenty of time to position yourself.

Wait for it.

— Mohit Sorout 📈 (@singhsoro) March 8, 2020

Market Selloff Likely to Extend as Sell Orders Begin Stacking

It does appear that Bitcoin’s ongoing selloff may extend significantly further in the near-term, as the crypto is seeing unrelenting selling pressure from traders on Bitfinex.

Hsaka, a prominent cryptocurrency analyst on Twitter, spoke about this selling pressure in a recent tweet, explaining that BTC has been facing “non-stop $100k market sells” in the time since its daily open.

“Finex has been unloading like a gatling gun today. Non stop 100k market sells since the daily open. This screenshot is just of the past 5 mins,” he explained.

Finex has been unloading like a gatling gun today.

Non stop 100k market sells since the daily open. This screenshot is just of the past 5 mins. $BTC pic.twitter.com/6pKkTD0b9o

— Hsaka (@HsakaTrades) March 8, 2020

Unless this unrelenting selling pressure alleviates in the coming hours, it is probable that Bitcoin and the aggregated cryptocurrency market will see significantly further near-term downside.

Featured image from Shutterstock.