Bitcoin crashes below $20,000 amid crypto bloodbath

Bitcoin tumbled below $20,000 as losses extended Saturday, with the widespread bleeding also sending other major coins to multi-year lows.

BTC price falls below previous cycle high

Bitcoin’s plunge on Saturday pushed BTC price past the 2017 all-time high, the first time the benchmark cryptocurrency had broken below a four-year cycle high. 

The 2017 bull market had Bitcoin peaking just under the $20k mark – a level that today’s dip broke past as price fell to lows of $18,718 on crypto exchange Coinbase.

Bitcoin below the previous cycle ATH had a number of long term holders who bought at that peak down on their investment.

What next for the BTC price?

While BTC/USD is back above $19,000 (currently around $19,467), it remains below the critical level. The Bitcoin Fear& Greed index has dipped to 6, indicating the market is in extreme fear and likely to see further losses.

Crypto investor and analyst Michael van de Poppe says Bitcoin is currently wading below a key level. It’s also getting a hiding from a “destructive market structure“, which leaves the next reaction a crucial phase as to what happens next.

Ethereum broke below $1,000 + bad news for alts

Ethereum fell below $1,000 to lows around $980 while there were losses for BNB, Cardano, XRP, Solana and Polkadot in the top ten section of the market.

According to crypto analyst il Capo, altcoins could see more losses than Bitcoin in the short term. However, he notes, alts reaching support and Bitcoin dominance index hitting resistance around 50% would mark a bottom for the entire market.

BTC dominance index is around 42% at a market cap of $370 billion while Ethereum’s market cap is just over $122 billion at nearly 14% market dominance.

Crypto rot continues

The declines follow a sustained downturn for cryptocurrencies in a rot also catalyzed by the collapse of stablecoin project TerraUSD and recent troubles for crypto bank Celsius and crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.

The entire crypto market has seen about $2.2 trillion wiped off since the downturn began in November 2021. Currently, total crypto market capitalization stands at around $888 billion. 

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