Bitcoin loses its grip on $50,000 as weekend trading slumps
Bitcoin took another dip below $50,000 today as weekend trading struggled to get going across the board.
Despite briefly showing signs of life yesterday with a determined step up towards $51k in what looked like a genuine effort to shake off the hangover of a crimson-flushed week for cryptocurrency, weak trading volume saw the world’s leading digital asset slide back to a level of support around $49,500.
Traditionally weak in volume throughout BTC’s history, weekends have recently set the scene for some remarkable upward price action. However, last Sunday’s fall from above $60,000 to the mid-fifties followed by an eye-watering tumble to $48,000 days later has seemingly laid down the marker for market sentiment which appears almost disinterested.
The fervour of excitement at all-time highs being notched regularly with a swaggering nonchalance appears to have been all but snuffed out as the markets enter into a tentative – yet ostensibly temporary – recovery mode.
Robust support lines
A positive waymarker for many cryptocurrencies suffering a scarlet fever over the last week is the sign of robust support lines forming that may hold firm against several suggestions of the anticipated and dramatic corrections being portended by many analysts.
Days ago, Guggenheim Partners’ veteran financial figurehead Scott Minerd claimed Bitcoin had overstretched itself at a dangerous speed, saying the flagship cryptocurrency could dramatically halve in value over the coming weeks.
Minerd – also Chairman of Guggenheim Investments and a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Investor Advisory Committee on Financial Markets – described the market as ‘frothy’ and lining itself up for a potentially massive pull-back.
However, in the face overwhelming downward pressure, both Bitcoin and Ethereum look to have landed on some solid ground at their current levels, which may provide a platform to rebuild from over the next few days.
Ethereum’s native currency, ETH, hit a massively important high in the last week. The significant psychological barrier of $2,500 was breached with gusto just before the red veil was drawn across the markets.
But, just like Bitcoin, Ether has also found a reasonably stable horizontal line as it ripples across $2,200. With BTC seemingly happy to meander between $49,500 and $51,400, it would look to all intents and purposes as though the market leaders are preparing to sit in recovery and ride out any potential storm that the last days of April often throw up.
Elsewhere, Litecoin (LTC) looks to be mirroring the same battle plan as it cruises across $225 while Binance’s native BNB steadies itself around $500.
The cryptocurrency world has ridden a massive wave of success over the last couple of months. Maybe this across-the-board ebbtide is the bit where Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB et al just need to sit on the beach for a while and reflect on how far they’ve come.