Chaos in alt markets as Bitcoin steadies after sharp fall
Crypto at a glance
It’s been a wild 24 hours in the crypto markets, with the price of Bitcoin falling more than 25 per cent yesterday to a low of just above $30,000.
The leading cryptocurrency has since recovered to the $40,000 level and is now down just one per cent over the day, which is astonishing really given the rollercoaster of emotions and general doom-mongering that was going on. Is more turbulence in store, or did we just see the bottom?
Bitcoin wasn’t alone, and its market dominance is actually up again as others took an even bigger hit. Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, is down almost 10 per cent, while other alternative cryptocurrencies suffered worse fates. Binance Coin is down 17 per cent over the last 24 hours, XRP is down 20 per cent, Polkadot (DOT) was down 25 per cent… the list goes on. Can they recover as Bitcoin has?
The doom merchants on Twitter and the press were out in full force yesterday claiming the end of it all – the death of cryptocurrency. While this certainly isn’t the first time many of them have wrongly rushed to condemn Bitcoin and its ilk, it’s understandable that the speed at which it happened may have put the wind up people.
READ MORE: Bitcoin drops below $40k amid fear of potential washout
Those who have been in the space a while will be more used to such dramatic price movements, but by anyone’s standards it was a dramatic drop. Equally, it was also a dramatic recovery.
It’s important to understand the event in context with a cascade of bad news including Musk’s retraction, fear that China may be cracking down on crypto after it reiterated its previous crypto bans, and a shakier macro climate as US stocks started falling, led by major losses on shares of tech stocks. Musk did recover his reputation somewhat by tweeting diamond hands amidst the falling price, which some speculated helped the recovery. Can the news turn once again in Bitcoin’s favour?
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Total crypto market cap
The total capitalisation of the entire cryptocurrency market at time of writing is currently $1,760,410,472,285, down from $1,827,193,544,520 yesterday.
What Bitcoin did yesterday
We closed yesterday, May 19 2021, at a price of $37,002.44, down from $42,909.40 the day before. That’s the lowest daily close since February 4.
The daily high yesterday was $43,546.12 and the daily low was $30,681.50. That’s the lowest the price has been since January.
This time last year, the price of Bitcoin closed the day at $9,729.04. In 2019, it closed at $8,197.69.
Bitcoin market capitalisation
Bitcoin’s market capitalisation at time of writing is $761.42 billion, up from $751.97 billion yesterday. To put it into context, the market cap of gold is $11.895 trillion and Facebook is $889.17 billion.
Bitcoin volume
The total spot trading volume reported by all exchanges over the last 24 hours was $133,033,444,219, up from $69,763,283,844 yesterday. High volumes can indicate that a significant price movement has stronger support and is more likely to be sustained.
Volatility
The price volatility of Bitcoin over the last 30 days is 84.91%.
Fear and Greed Index
Market sentiment today is at 11, down from 23 yesterday.
Bitcoin’s market dominance
Bitcoin’s market dominance today is 43.93, up from 41.11 yesterday. Its lowest ever recorded dominance was 37.09 on January 8 2018.
Relative Strength Index (RSI)
The daily RSI is currently 32.08, down from 24.33 yesterday. Values of 70 or above indicate that an asset is becoming overbought and may be primed for a trend reversal or experience a correction in price – an RSI reading of 30 or below indicates an oversold or undervalued condition.
Convince your Nan: Soundbite of the day
“We go through soul-searching times like this and scrape the models, and yes our conviction is as high. The one thing [that has] changed here, however, is the environmental concerns around bitcoin, in particular, have caused people like Elon Musk to pull away.
“You never know how low is low when a market gets very emotional, a lot of traders see bitcoin dropping below the 200-day moving average, which was $40,000. So traders, once they see that happen, they just dump and run. I think we’re in a capitulation phase… which is a really great time to buy, no matter what the asset is.”
– Cathie Wood, chief executive of asset manager of ARK Invest
What they said yesterday
Well, that clears things up…
Saylor’s got your back…
Always good to zoom out…
Twitter had fun amidst the chaos at least…
Crypto AM Editor writes
Bitcoin gets the jitters as Elon Musk’s curious meddling continues…
Dogecoin inventor takes a swipe at “self absorbed” Musk…
Ethereum yet to take off and is on track for $5,200 soon say experts…
Ethereum punches through $3,000 with market cap bigger than Bank of America…
Ethereum closing in on $3,000 as Bitcoin eases off the throttle…
Cardano teams up with Save the Children for humanitarian initiative….
HMRC were not clamping down on crypto…
Binance jumps on the NFT market…
Ethiopia overhauls its educational system with IOHK blockchain partnership…
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Cautionary Notes
It’s definitely tempting to get swept up in the excitement, but please heed these words of caution: Do your own research, only invest what you can afford, and make good decisions. The indicators contained in this article will hopefully help in this. Remember though, the content of this article is for information purposes only and is not investment advice or any form of recommendation or invitation. City PM, Crypto AM and Luno always advise you to obtain your own independent financial advice before investing or trading in cryptocurrency.
All information is correct as of 08:30am GMT.