After a couple days of sideways trading, Bitcoin has now fallen back down to its previously established 2018 lows, leading to a widespread market sell-off that has brought the overall cryptocurrency market capitalization down to $105 billion.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading down nearly 5% at its current price of $3,320, which is marginally above its recently-established 2018 low of $3,280, which was set on December 7th.
Earlier today, Bitcoin was trading in the $3,400 region, before swiftly dropping to $3,300, where BTC appears to have found some support. It is unclear as to whether or not $3,300, which has proved to be a level of strong support over the past few weeks, will continue to hold as Bitcoin’s bears continue to apply pressure to the market’s largest cryptocurrency.
While speaking about the current state of the markets, Jani Ziedins of CrackedMarket said that the longer Bitcoin trades at these relatively low prices, the less likely the chances of it bouncing are.
“Bitcoin continues to muddle along in the mid-$3K range. The longer we maintain these levels, the less likely it becomes that prices are oversold and poised for a pop. The public has largely written cryptocurrencies off as a fad and no new money is coming in. The lack of demand will continue to be a big liability.”
Despite Ziedins’ pessimism, Tom Lee of Fundstrat Global Advisors told clients in a recent research note to clients that the recent sell-off does not make sense fundamentally.
“Given the steep discounts of BTC to our fair value models, the excessive bearish sentiment about fundamentals does not seem warranted,” Lee said.
Altcoins Plunge
Bitcoin’s move to $3,300 has led most altcoins to fall significantly, with some of the worst affected cryptocurrencies dropping 6% or more.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is one of today’s worst performing cryptocurrencies and is currently trading down over 10% at its current price of $91. Bitcoin Cash set a fresh all-time-low today at $90 and is showing no signs of fundamental strength.
Bitcoin SV (BSV) – Bitcoin Cash’s hard fork offshoot – is another victim of today’s market rout and is currently trading down nearly 12% at its current price of $79. BSV is currently behind BCH’s market cap by approximately $200 million.
XRP is currently one of today’s better performing altcoins and is currently trading down just over 2% at its current price of approximately $0.30. XRP appears to have strong support at its current price levels and has not fallen below $0.29 since this past September.
At the time of writing, Ethereum (ETH) is trading down nearly 5% at its current price of just under $86.5 and is trading slightly above its 2018 low of $83.