Bitcoin declined 15% over the weekend. As BTC plunged, altcoins like Ethereum (ETH) also fell in value.
The value of the leading cryptocurrency by market cap Bitcoin fell as much as 15% over the weekend after reaching a record high of nearly $65,000 last week. According to Coin Metrics data, Bitcoin traded as high as $64,851 in the early hours of the 14th of April. The record high occurred ahead of Coinbase’s (NASDAQ: COIN) public debut on Nasdaq.
Bitcoin Value Down Less than One Week after Hitting Record High
As Bitcoin plunged, altcoins like Ethereum (ETH) also fell in value. As of the 19th of April, Bitcoin traded at about $55,000. Some equities related to cryptocurrencies also went low. Coinbase lost almost 2.6%, Voyager Digital dropped 9.6%, and Marathon Digital Holdings lost 8.7%.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is down 3.24% to $54,792. In the last 24 hours, BTC has traded as low as $54,368. The king coin has also lost more than 3% in its market capitalization to a little over $1 trillion. On the other hand, ETH has also lessened 7% to $2,100.
The vice president of digital-asset strategy at Fundstrat Global Advisors Leeor Shimron commented:
“There’s been a lot of rumors and speculation about what pushed the market down over the weekend. To me, it’s boiled down to excess leverage within the system. We’ve seen it over the last couple of weeks, especially in bitcoin but it spilled into other asset classes as well.”
Shimron added that another factor behind the speculation is the huge BTC deposit over Binance during the weekend. He noted that about $5 billion worth of BTC contract was liquidated. Including the altcoin market, $9.5 billion was liquidated.
“Notably, this is twice the notional value compared to Black Thursday 2020, when bitcoin’s price dropped by ~50% in 24 hours. The fact this sell-off resulted in a drop of just 15% and quickly rebounded speaks to how much the market has grown and matured over the course of the last year,” added the vice president.
Bitcoin Surges 680% in One Year
As Shimron said, the crypto market has increased more than 680% in the last 12 months. The gains were caused by the continuous demand for crypto by institutional investors, among other factors.
The head of equities and derivatives strategy at BTIG predicted BTC to trade between $50,000 and $65,000.
According to Ari Wald, head of technical analysis at Oppenheimer, the recent Bitcoin decline seems like a trend. Speaking to CNBC’s Trading Nation on the 19th of April, Wald pointed out that Bitcoin plunged 20% in August, 17% in November, 31% in January. 26% in February, 18% in March and has now fallen about 16%. He further said that instead of Bitcoin investors recording losses, the king coin has grown more than 315% between August last year and now.
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