Bitcoin (BTC) stood at $ 1,000 from its all-time highs on June 14 as settlements mounted in the crypto markets.
1 hour candle chart BTC / USD (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView
The price of Bitcoin reaches 18-month lows
Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView data showed that BTC / USD reached $ 20,816 on Bitstamp, its lowest level since the week of December 14, 2020.
A sale that began before the weekend intensified after the June 13 Wall Street opening bell, with Bitcoin and altcoins falling to the pace of U.S. equities.
The S&P 500 ended the day down 3.9%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 4.7% ahead of key US Federal Reserve comments on its anti-inflation policy.
However, the worst of the defeat was reserved for the crypto, and with that, BTC / USD lost 22.4% from the beginning of the week until the time of writing.
The pair was also “uncomfortably close” to crossing the $ 20,000 mark, said trading firm QCP Capital, which represents the all-time high of its downturn in the previous half, something that had never happened before.
In a circular to Telegram channel subscribers, QCP highlighted both the issue of inflation and the possible insolvency of the Fintech Celsius protocol as a driver of the sale.
“We have been expressing concern about the collapse of a major credit player since the explosion of LUNA. The market is now in a panic over the impact and contagion if Celsius becomes insolvent,” he said.
“Some key settlement levels that the market is looking for are 1,150 in ETH, 0.8 in stETH / ETH and 20,000 in BTC. We are approaching uncomfortably.”
For other analysts, all bets were off when guessing the BTC minimum price or whether key trend lines would be maintained as support.
Deadly red candle, deadly green candle.
– Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) June 13, 2022
Rekt Capital warned that the 200-week simple moving average (SMA) at $ 22,400 had not been accompanied by significant volume interest, leaving the door open to a test of lower levels.
“BTC has reached the 200-week MA, but the volume inflow is not as strong as in the previous Bear Market Bottoms formed at 200 MA,” he told Twitter followers:
“But there is a downside below 200 MA and maybe this time it should happen this time to inspire a strong influx of volume.”
At the time of writing, the 200 SMA seemed to act more as a resistance than as a support in periods of low weather.
1 week candle chart BTC / USD (Bitstamp) with 200 SMA. Source: TradingView
The Altcoin futures index shows all the strength of the downtrend
In altcoins, Ether (ETH) fell as much as 40% below the previous week’s high to near $ 1,000.
Related: Lowest weekly closing since December 2020: 5 things to know about Bitcoin this week
In the event of a break-up, it would be the first time that ETH / USD has been trading at three-digit prices since January 2021. As reported by Cointelegraph, the pair had already exceeded its maximum of $ 1,530 since the downturn in the previous half of Bitcoin.
Among the altcoins, there was little reason to celebrate this downward trend, argued Rekt Capital, highlighting the presence of high compared to Bitcoin.
In fact, the green support of the HTF that was lost in May has since become a new resistance
The Altcoin index has fallen 50% since then
Since then, the index has reached a new monthly level (orange) which may already be showing weakness.
The strongest support is in green below #Ethereum #Crypto pic.twitter.com/cJlra7EkIq
– Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) June 13, 2022
Meanwhile, as a sign of the pain affecting all crypto traders, data from the monitoring resource on the Coinglass chain confirmed that cross-market settlements exceeded $ 1.2 billion in just 24 hours.
Crypto settlement chart. Source: Coinglass
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and business move carries a risk, you will need to do your own research when making a decision.