Bitcoin has been stuck around $11,000 since the middle of last week, very slowly moving upwards. Until today that is. The digital asset went down 3.7% to as low as $10,538 in a sudden move.
Trading around $10,600, BTC is in the red on the back of $1.2 billion ‘real’ volume. Top altcoins are also moving in tandem with the leading digital currency and recording losses between 5% to 16%.
weak bairs shaken out, now gently release the kraken https://t.co/0DCv5fHq6s
— Majin Jackson (@majinsayan) September 21, 2020
Ether also dropped by more than 6% to nearly $355. According to trader Benjamin Blunts, the digital asset could further plunge to $320 level. “Eth is still very close to rolling over imo, the whole market looks pretty fucked tbh,” he said.
While CREAM (-35%), RUNE (-30%), and bzrx (-27%) are among the top losers, SASHIMI (+42%), Hakka (18%), and Orchid (+17%), are the biggest gainers.
Volatile Coming
Altcoins continue to react violently whenever bitcoin makes a downward move. And bitcoin itself remains vulnerable to equity market movements. When it comes to S&P 500, it can be a source of great price volatility with not only the most contested election in US history coming, but the passing of the Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg over the weekend has only thickened the plot.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death should justifiably rattle markets. It signals instability at the very foundation of US government.
Not a political statement, just fact.
— The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) September 21, 2020
Besides the macro-environment this week, we will see more than 80k BTC option contracts expire, which could further open the doors to more volatility.
Over the weekend, Bitcoin dropped just under $10,800 only to move back up at the beginning of another week, much like other times, only to get dumped.
“We’re trading in the middle of nowhere ($11.5k resistance, $10.6k support),” said analyst DonAlt.
Post-crash relief rallies into the red box have resulted in rejection followed by further downside
On this occasion though, Bitcoin is trying to hold the bottom of this red box (i.e. $10.800) as support
Buyers need to step in here for BTC to avoid a drop pic.twitter.com/QcAJGVqBMm
— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) September 21, 2020
Meanwhile, Fundamentals Shoot Up
Analyst DonAlt also noted how the publicly traded MicroStrategy bought $425 million worth of BTC with no effect on the price of the digital asset.
“I’d honestly expect price to do anything but randomly drop/chop sideways after an event like that,” he said.
The amount of money it takes to move $btc vs the rest of the crypto market is simultaneously the driving factor behind both my bull and bear case. https://t.co/6Meama9kAp
— Ceteris Paribus (@ceterispar1bus) September 20, 2020
Before the weekend, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor noted that the BTC purchase by the company was made in several off-chain transactions, which were then secured in a cold-storage with multiple off-chain transactions.
“If Bitcoin is treated as a treasury reserve asset, based on our model, 99.98% of all transactions will be off-chain, and assets-at-risk will be in cold storage 99.92% of the time,” said Saylor.
Over the weekend, Saylor further exhibited his BTC maximalism, stating, “When considering network dominance in the crypto industry, I find it clarifying to separate crypto-asset networks like Bitcoin from crypto-application networks like Ethereum & stablecoins.”
For now, the price of bitcoin might be taking its time to shoot off, but the fundamentals, the hash rate of the network, and difficulty continue to surge higher.
Miners are already contributing a record amount of hashes to generate the digital asset. With an 11.3% mining difficulty on the weekend, the third-largest positive adjustment in the past two years also made a new peak.