As the day progresses, we’ve seen more and more cryptocurrencies suffer major losses. The main culprit is Bitcoin, which seemingly can’t catch a break right now. More specifically, the Bitcoin price has dropped once again during the past 24 hours, declining by 4.77%. Although the value of one Bitcoin is still 1 BTC, its dollar value is slowly falling toward US$11,000 and potentially even lower.
Another bad day for Bitcoin
Looking at the Bitcoin price over the past 7 days, there have been nearly a dozen ups and downs. Things started out decently a week ago, with an initial Bitcoin price of just over US$11,500. Unfortunately, there is a lot of market volatility which sends the market up and down on a regular basis. One silver lining is that the price has not dropped below US$10,000 in the past week, but it is evident there is sufficient pressure on the market to reject a push to US$12,000.
In fact, we saw an attempt to push the Bitcoin price to US$12,000 over the weekend. Unfortunately, that effort did not succeed. While it had seemed all cryptocurrencies were on the path to recovery, the Bitcoin price was pushed down to US$11,500 last night and is now heading to US$11,000. Bitcoin’s bearish momentum also hinders the growth of alternative cryptocurrencies, creating a sort of domino effect on the entire industry.
With the Bitcoin price now heading lower again, it is unclear what we can expect later today. Looking at the charts, it is evident such dips occur virtually every day, and they are usually followed by a sharp increase in value. For now, it seems the price of Bitcoin will remain stuck between US$10,500 and US$12,000 for quite some time to come. Anyone who has a bullish outlook on the short-term Bitcoin price may want to readjust their expectations rather quickly.
There are some positive statistics to note as well, though. Despite this current Bitcoin price decline, the world’s leading cryptocurrency still generated over US$7.42 billion in 24-hour trading volume. It is not the US$10 billion or more that we have seen in recent weeks, but the volume is still more than respectable. Unfortunately, it does appear that most market orders related to selling Bitcoin rather than buying it. Trends like these can always reverse rather quickly, but for now, things look pretty bleak.
Surprisingly, neither Bitfinex nor Upbit is the leading exchange ranked by Bitcoin’s 24-hour trading volume right now. That honor is bestowed to OKEX, as its BTC/USDT pair is off the charts today. Although its lead over Bitfinex is just US$40.8 million, it will be difficult for the USD market to catch up today. Upbit is also positioning itself as the leading Korean cryptocurrency exchange in terms of trading volume. Bithumb isn’t even in the top 10 anymore these days, which is somewhat surprising.
Looking toward the future, it is a bit unclear what comes next for the Bitcoin price. Any positive momentum has been quickly squashed, yet there isn’t sufficient negative pressure to push the price below US$10,000 either. This period of sideways trading will probably continue for a while longer. At the same time, cryptocurrency markets are inherently volatile and unpredictable. Making accurate Bitcoin price predictions has always been difficult, and the year 2018 will be no different.
