Flash crash on Bitcoin leads to weekend losses for leveraged traders as markets return to green today
Crypto at a glance
A rough weekend for leading cryptocurrencies saw the total market cap plunge below $2 trillion on Sunday for the first time in just over a week, though a recovery overnight has seen many come charging back. Can they now pick up where they left off last week?
The weekend’s antics were led by a huge fall for Bitcoin, which plunged 15 per cent in a single day yesterday to around $52,000. That represents a fall of more than $12,000 from last Wednesday’s all-time high of almost $65,000.
The drop comes off the bat of last week’s Coinbase listing, with many possibly still trying to decide whether the corresponding price bounce was temporary or if it has a bit more longevity. There have been a host of plausible explanations given for the fall though, with FUD running rampant.
Sunday also saw the single largest one-day drop in mining hash rate since Nov 2017, with the hash rate on the network essentially halving.
There was speculation that the US Treasury may crack down on money laundering carried out through digital assets, while CNBC last night tweeted as new a month-old report on India preparing to possibly ban cryptocurrencies in India.
Whatever the reasons, it seems none of these have proved particularly sticky as we head into the new week. What was a bad weekend across the board has turned sharply, and the majority of cryptocurrencies are still up over the past seven days.
Ripple’s XRP ended its incredible recent run, falling from $1.74 on Saturday to $1.17 yesterday, but has since recovered to $1.44 at time of writing. Can it continue to recoup its losses?
Bitcoin Cash is also making up ground again, having drifted down the rankings of late. It’s now back in the top 10 and trading at an all-time high of almost $1,000.
Dogecoin is now changing hands at just below $0.40, up almost 400 per cent on the week. It’s now the sixth largest cryptocurrency by market cap. What a time to be alive!
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Total crypto market cap
The total capitalisation of the entire cryptocurrency market at time of writing is currently $2,099,226,049,323.
What Bitcoin did yesterday
We closed yesterday, April 18 2021, at a price of $56,216.19 – down from $60,683.82 the day before.
The daily high yesterday was $61,057.46 and the daily low was $52,829.54.
This time last year, the price of bitcoin closed the day at $7,257.66. In 2019, it closed at $5,298.39.
Bitcoin market capitalisation
Bitcoin’s market capitalisation at time of writing is $1.072 trillion. To put that into context, the market cap of gold is $11.3 trillion and Alphabet (Google) is $1.544 trillion.
Bitcoin volume
The total spot trading volume reported by all exchanges over the last 24 hours was $73,287,722,807. 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 46.6%.
Fear and Greed Index
Market sentiment remains in Extreme Greed at 74.
Bitcoin’s market dominance
Bitcoin’s market dominance today is 52.15. Its lowest ever recorded dominance was 37.09 on January 8 2018.
Relative Strength Index (RSI)
The daily RSI is currently 46.55. 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 regard Bitcoin and stablecoin as crypto assets … These are investment alternatives.”
Li Bo, deputy governor of the PBOC
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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.