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Bitcoin – The Bears Take Big Bite Out of the Bulls

By:
Bob Mason
Published: Jan 29, 2019, 02:30 UTC

The bears are out in force as the crypto market ends the week on a bad note and kicks off the new one in the red...

Crypto is down

Bitcoin slumped by 2.65% on Monday, following on from a 0.94% fall on Sunday, to end the day at $3,501.9.

A particularly bearish start to the week saw Bitcoin tumble from a start of a day intraday high $3,597.9 to an afternoon intraday low $3,445.3 before steadying.

Tracking the broader market through the day, Bitcoin slid through the first major support level at $3,543.5 and second major support level at $3,489.9 before breaking back through the second major support level late in the day.

A recovery to $3,500 levels by the day’s end was the only positive for the bulls, with another string of tight ranges leaving the bulls to lick their wounds, as investors continue to take a more cautious position ahead of a number of key events anticipated in the first half of the year.

Elsewhere, it was a sea of red across the majors, with even the market favorite Tron taking a tumble through the day. While none of the top 10 got through the day unscathed, a number of the major saw particularly heavy falls at the start to the week.

Bitcoin Cash ABC and SV ended the day with 7.25% and 9.14% losses respectively, with Stellar’s Lumen down by 7.2%. Ripple’s XRP and Litecoin saw more moderate losses of 3.97% and 3.31% respectively, while Bitcoin was the best performer on the day.

Having managed to hover around the $120bn mark, the total crypto market cap slid to $113.12bn, with Bitcoin’s dominance jumping to 53.6%, anything above 52% a bearish signal for Bitcoin and the broader market.

Once more, the lack of positive news and possible expectation that the SEC will defer or even support the rejection of the 8 Bitcoin ETF applications from last year weighed on the cryptomarket.

The bulls would have hoped for a bullish start to the year, investors were given the opportunity to dust off a dire 2018. January has been far from bullish, however, with Bitcoin down 8.63% for the current month. While sub-$3,000 levels have been avoided, ripping the plaster off may ultimately be what Bitcoin and the broader market needs before it can settle.

We still support a sub-$3,000 low before any recovery is possible and, for the bulls, of greater concern will be where Bitcoin sits at the time of the SEC’s announcement and, perhaps more importantly, the G20’s rollout of rules and regulations over the summer.

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At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.31% to $3,491.1 at the time of writing, with Bitcoin giving up $3,500 levels early as the broader market saw Sunday’s reversal continue into the early hours.

Bitcoin’s going to need to move back through to a morning high $3,517.5 or face the threat of a pullback to sub-$3,400 levels later in the day. With red across the broader market in the early hours, any hope of even a dead cat bounce looks slim.

BTC/USD 29/01/19 Daily Chart

About the Author

Bob Masonauthor

With over 20 years of experience in the finance industry, Bob has been managing regional teams across Europe and Asia and focusing on analytics across both corporate and financial institutions. Currently he is covering developments relating to the financial markets, including currencies, commodities, alternative asset classes, and global equities.

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