Bitcoin slips under $30k as fears of huge plunge mount

Buckle up.

Bitcoin this afternoon slid under US$30,000 – a level technical analysts have been saying for weeks was crucial to defend, lest the original cryptocurrency plunge back down to US$20,000 or so.

BTC’s ascent in late 2020 and early 2021 was so meteoric that there precious few resistance levels to serve as support on the way down before then, analysts say.

Bitcoin 30k support just fell through, how low will we go? I’m guessing 17k-25k. Then 20’s until the next halving.

— Elja oom (@Eljaboom) July 20, 2021

MicroStrategy has purchased an additional 0.0032 bitcoins for $98.62 in cash at an average price of ~$30,819 per #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/fh0saSaLgZ

— NateAlex (@NateAlexNFT) July 19, 2021

At 5pm AEST, Bitcoin was trading at US$29,728, down 6.5 per cent in the past 24 hours.

Ethereum was changing hands at US$1,759, down 7.7 per cent.

Most altcoins were suffering double-digit losses, with NEM the worst hit, falling 22 per cent.