Getty Images
Crypto market stabilises, but one analyst sees BTC dipping as low as US$25-$28k
Coinhead
share
Cryptos have stabilised somewhat after the weekend crash, but some are predicting there could be more damage to come.
Bitcoin was trading at lunchtime (Sydney time) at US$35,965, up 1.7 per cent from 24 hours ago. At 11am AEDT (midnight UTC), its weekly candle closed at US$36,100, after the original cryptocurrency hit a six month low of $US34,350 over the weekend.
City Index analyst Tony Sycamore wrote that Friday’s break below US$39,500 was a sign that further weakness was likely towards support at the June low of $28,600 and 25,000 (wave equality from the $69,000 high).
For a contagion driven asset with no economic anchor such as #BTC, a falling price does not make it “cheaper” and more attractive. A falling price makes it less desirable &, paradoxically, more expensive.
Why? Because price is its ONLY information.
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) January 22, 2022
Pepperstone analyst Chris Weston told Ausbiz TV that he thought one reason for the crash was that last week US Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Gary Gensler announced he wanted to increase regulation on crypto exchanges.
“It was sort of hitting a market that was already in freefall and obviously trending lower, there was sort of a momentum move there…so obviously, in a decentralised world, you can’t really outlaw crypto, but what you can do is go after the first derivative of what, which is of course if the way of getting fiat in the system through the exchanges.”
Weston said he saw crypto as a “high beta macro play more than anything else” and as liquidity comes out of the market with interest rates rising, he expects that people will be selling rallies.
“The bigger picture here is a market front-running and moving out, and not fighting the Fed,” he said.
Crypto market up 3% in past 24 hours
While the crypto market was up 3.0 per cent to US$1.66 trillion at lunchtime, the selloff has left most coins deeply in the red for 2022.
Of the top 100 (non-stablecoins), just five cryptos are higher from where they started the year: Osmosis (up 54 per cent); Cosmos (9.2 per cent); Secret Network (8.4 per cent); Ecomi (5.3 per cent) and Fantom (4.9 per cent).
Everything else is in the red, with the biggest laggard being Filecoin, down 44.7 per cent since the beginning of the year.
BTC is down 23.4 per cent and Ethereum, 32.4 per cent.
Ethereum was trading at US$2,491 after dipping as low as $2,330 over the weekend.
