By
Chimamanda U. Martha
May 6th, 2024
Crypto market woes don’t seem to settle anywhere as major cryptocurrencies slip below their crucial levels.
The sell-off in the crypto markets continue causing it to bleed badly even further in the last 24-hours. Just yesterday we saw how Bitcoin was moving dangerously close to the “death cross” a technical indicator on the charts which indicates that the 50-day moving average is going below the 200-day moving average.
Sliding further, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap went even further below the $7000 mark on Friday morning in Asia. According to the data on CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin made a low of $6726 on March 30, 2018 at around 10:04 hrs. This was a huge slide of 15% from its price on the previous day where Bitcoin was trading around $8000 levels. This was for the first time since February when Bitcoin breached these levels of $7000.
Moreover, Bitcoin goes to hit a 51-day low with a drop of more than $4500 in its price since it made a high of $11,600 on the 5th of March, 2018. However, the fall is not just limited to Bitcoin itself. Other major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Ripple has also seen a significant erosion in its price.
Since November 2017, the price of Ethereum for the first time has dropped below the $400 mark. According to the data on CoinMarketCap, Ethereum hit a low of $368.78 on March 30, 2018 at 06:49 hrs. Etherum kickstarted the year of 2018 on a very good note while hitting its all-time high of $1442 in January itself.
Along with Bitcoin and Ethereum, the third largest cryptocurrency by market-cap ‘Ripple’ slipped significantly on the crypto indices. Earlier today at around 06:30 hrs, Ripple made a low of $0.48 on the charts. This year itself in January, Ripple made a high of $3.81 and has been constantly correcting since then.
So if we are to consider an overall view, the crypto market cap which was at a high above $800 billion at the beginning of 2018 has undergone an erosion of more than 70% and is currently valued at $270 billion.
Over the last two months, there has been a huge downfall in the retail participation in the crypto markets owing to constantly mounting regulatory pressure from around the world. Moreover, the majority of the popular social media and advertising platforms like Facebook, Google, Twitter have recently distanced themselves from the crypto world by banning crypto-related advertisements after increasing reports of fake crypto ads appearing on their platform.
Writing a note, Naeem Aslam, the chief market analyst at TF Global Markets, said: “Bitcoin is under selling pressure again and chances of its recovery are looking slim. It has slid significantly, since the tech giants’ ban on ICOs.”
However, there are a few analysts who are still optimistic about their views on Bitcoin and the crypto markets in general. Fundstrat strategist Thomas Lee told to investors that even though the cryptocurrency bull run might not be in the near-term soon, the pain is “largely over”.
On the other hand, Bill Barhydt, CEO of Abra – an American-Express-backed told Business Insider “I talk to hedge funds, high net worth individuals, even commodity speculators. They look at the volatility in the crypto markets and they see it as a huge opportunity. Once that happens, all hell will break loose. Once the floodgates are opened, they’re opened.”