After a tumultuous couple of days in the cryptocurrency markets, most digital assets are trading up marginally and are showing increasing stability at their current prices. The recent drop, however, is impacting more than just cryptocurrencies, with some retail stocks feeling the burn as well.
Bitcoin Stable, Altcoins Follow its Lead
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading up just under 1% at its current price of $5,610 and is showing apparent stability at this level. Following Wednesday’s massive drop, which brought BTC from $6,350 to $6,500, its price has been ranging sideways and has recovered slightly from its freshly established 2018 low of $5,390 on the aggregated markets.
Because BTC bounced quickly when it moved into the $5,300 region, it is likely that this level will act as support in the future, but that will only be validated if it is able to maintain above that region in the coming days and is proceeded by an upwards move.
Following Wednesday’s drop, investors rapidly adjusted their positions to reflect the new prices. According to Fan Xu, a technical analyst at Daily FX, short positions are stacking up as traders exit their long positions.
“Retail trader data shows 79.9% of traders are net-long with the ratio of traders long to short at 3.98 to 1. The number of traders net-long is 7.6% lower than yesterday and 9.7% lower from last week, while the number of traders net-short is 24.7% higher than yesterday and 30.8% higher from last week.” he explained.
Although altcoins expressed unprecedented levels of individualism during BTC’s period of sideways trading preceding its recent drop, they are back to following Bitcoin’s lead, and are mostly trading flat at the time of writing.
Currently, the best performing major altcoin is Stellar Lumens, which is trading up 3.5% at its current price of $0.24. This is compared to Bitcoin Cash, which is one of today’s worst performing altcoins, currently trading down 2% at its current price of $408.
Nvidia’s Stock Price Tanks on Sales Data, Cryptocurrency Slump Partially to Blame
California-based computer chip manufacturer, Nvidia, saw a massive price drop on Nasdaq at the time of writing, and is currently trading down 19% due to reporting significantly lower than expected earnings in Q3 2018.
The company’s CEO, Jensen Huang, said that the decline in sales stems from a decline in cryptocurrency mining popularity, and has led the company to have a surplus of inventory that could take up to two quarters to sell off.
"The crypto hangover lasted longer than we expected," Huang explained during a conference call with investors and analysts on Thursday.
Deutsche Bank now has a “hold” rating on the stock, cut their price targets, and blamed it on the drop in public interest in the cryptocurrency markets, saying:
“After many years of near flawless performance, NVDA finally stumbled as the fall-off in crypto demand and the resulting ballooning of inventory impacted its quarter and more severely impacted the guidance."