As we come to the end of another week on crypto markets bitcoin has held on to support. Many of the altcoins have taken a bit of a beating however, and total market capitalization has shrunk $5 billion since Monday. Bearish sentiment is abound but BTC may simply have just completed its 40% correction as expected.
Support Holds For Bitcoin
BTC dropped below $8k for the fourth time yesterday but again did not stay there long and rallied back to reach an intraday high of $8,120. For almost a month now bitcoin has remained at this support zone around the $8k level where it has been range bound.
The down trend is still intact and bearish sentiment has swept across crypto twitter over the past couple of weeks. The crypto fear and greed index has been at around 40 for a fortnight now as the bears continue to lurk in the shadows.
An impending death cross on the daily chart also spells further doom and potential downsides which could see the year out. Not all are bearish though and many had predicted a correction of this magnitude. At today’s prices, bitcoin has corrected by 41% this year but it is still up over 110% since January 1.
Analysts have been looking back at previous rallies and the corrections that followed them.
People waiting for $6K $BTC keep forgetting one thing. In bull markets $BTC drops 40% and then doubles its price.
People waiting for $6K $BTC keep forgetting one thing.
In bull markets $BTC drops 40% and then doubles its price. pic.twitter.com/E6zbjap6Av
— Galaxy (@galaxyBTC) October 17, 2019
This has happened several times in the past few years, and always following a strong rally. The just over 40 percent figure seems to be pretty consistent so if this theory holds, bitcoin will be at its bottom at current price levels.
Analyst ‘Rekt Capital’ concurred with the sentiment in a previous post;
Bitcoin is no stranger to strong retraces a few months prior to its respective Halving. These retraces also happen to be the first major corrections in a new Bitcoin Bull Market
A drop to $6,000 would spell a 56% correction which is still recoverable but would be one of the assets largest so far. This time last year BTC was trading at $6,400 so even with a bearish outlook, things are still better than back then and the FUD is unfounded.
Elsewhere in the Crypto Market
A few of the altcoins are bouncing back a little today and there is more green than red on the boards. Ethereum (ETH) is creeping back towards $180 while XRP has climbed another 5% as it chases the psychological $0.30 level in the run up to the Swell conference next month.
Litecoin (LTC), Binance Coin (BNB), Tron (TRX) and Chainlink (LINK) are also having good gains today as crypto markets claw back $3 billion from yesterday’s losses.
Is bitcoin primed for another bull run? Add your thoughts below.
Images via Shutterstock, Twitter @galaxyBTC, BTC/USD charts by Tradingview