Bitcoin’s flash in the pan as crypto battles market pressure

As predicted by Express.co.uk on Friday, BTC faced an uncertain 48 hours with the likelihood that it would come out of the weekend worth less than it was at the start.

The charts for nearly all cryptocurrencies looked a sorry sight as the smoke cleared on Monday morning, unaware of the surprising pump that was building. Bitcoin had enjoyed something of a mini rally in the middle of last week, often threatening to build a base around $4,000 but persistently failing.

That fall back below $3,700 by Sunday looked particularly crushing and left several observers thinking they were about to witness the start of a widely anticipated capitulation.

This curious pattern of weekend volatility continues to repeat itself as those with bearish or bullish sentiments appear happy to use Saturday and Sunday as their current battlefield of choice.

More often than not, it’s the flag of the bear which remains on the pole come Monday morning.

And while many see this continuing for a protracted war across 2019, the bulls can take heart from a notable increase in trading volume which has been building in the first quarter of this year – and certainly gaining momentum over the last few weeks.

Not so much, perhaps, for bitcoin but certainly across the board as the power of alternative currencies – known as “altcoins” – is showing signs of growth.

Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, XRP, Litecoin etc are all seeing elevated volumes which could – in some circumstances – be beneficial to the price of BTC.

In most cases, it only takes one popular coin to go on a run and suddenly the markets become a pattern of green.

There was a sign of this recently with the little-known coin BNB – a product of the Binance exchange – which enjoyed a huge price hike over a run of days.

Market graphs, when overlaid on BNB’s movement showed a clear lift.

However, despite the encouragement of volume – around $25bn a day on exchanges – there is still no obvious sign of a breakout to the upside significant enough to mount a serious challenge to several higher ceilings.

And that’s in spite of yesterday’s brief encouragement.

If anything, the very robust and repeated rejection of any challenge to the $4,200 or $4,000 levels are probably a clear indication that BTC has further to fall.

Although today it looks like BTC could linger a while around $3,840, this current path still looks destined to be leading somewhere between $3,600 and $3,200. This is a typical pattern that reflects where traders who bought on the way up last week are now washing out in an effort to minimise their risk.

Again, trading volume aside, this is still very much a bear market which could yet test $3,100 or lower.

There should be no surprises if $3,000 is breached before March is out, just as there should be no surprise if it’s risen to $4,200 by the time you’ve reached the end of this sentence.

Such is the nature of this fascinating beast. 

Coin Rivet a website bringing news, information, analysis, opinion and insight from the fast-moving blockchain world.