Crypto markets are depreciating for another day as Bitcoin fails to gain any traction. Volatility appears to be returning as a big spike triggered a lot of liquidation a few hours ago. The overall picture is still very bearish though.
BitMEX Bitcoin Manipulation Calls
The slow grind down has continued this week but some spurious action on BitMEX saw a big stop run as BTC spiked above $7,400. According to Datamesh over $8 million in shorts were liquidated on BitMEX.
The move was instantly met with a cascade of sell orders which plunged the price to below $7,100 in less than an hour.
Since then BTC has maintained a level of $7,150 which has kept the down trend in tact as it moves towards the $7 support zone.
There appears to be a lot of bot action on the controversial exchange which is causing these chart anomalies.
Traders and analysts in general are mostly in agreement that the next direction for Bitcoin will be south. Josh Rager has lined up a few scenarios but the all end with the same outcome, BTC in the $6k zone.
“$BTC looks like scenario two up to play. Slightly higher on some exchanges but not a retest of the high, before pushing back down to $7k and below.”
https://twitter.com/Josh_Rager/status/1204916603084791808
Whatever bounce does come will have to be big to keep the asset in its consolidation channel above $7k. Fellow trader ‘Hsaka’ is a little more bullish in the short term, eyeing a bounce back to around $7,400.
“Would not be surprised to see something like this play out. Darth mauls at support are usually followed by sideways action instead of immediate trend continuation.”
Would not be surprised to see something like this play out.
Darth mauls at support are usually followed by sideways action instead of immediate trend continuation.
(PSA: Bars are not to scale and purely for visualization purposes) pic.twitter.com/EN1UVl0rxX
— Hsaka (@HsakaTrades) December 12, 2019
Even with a slight recovery, the bears are still in full control of the BTC markets and until that starts to show signs of change down is the path of least resistance. Fellow trader ‘Cantering Clark’ observed that bids are also starting to fall off.
“$BTC looking like it is starting to find acceptance lower. Below weekly value area low, monthly value area low, and daily value area low. Bid starting to drop off as well.”
Elsewhere on Crypto Markets
The bearish sentiment has infiltrated the entire market as usual with total capitalization dropping to $195 billion, its lowest level for over a week.
All altcoins are seeing red today with Ethereum, BNB, Stellar and Chainlink taking the biggest hits at the time of writing. Only Cosmos and a newcomer called MINDOL appear to be surviving the slump at the moment.
Image from Shutterstock