‘So much fear’: Bitcoin drops under US$39k as selloff deepens

Fear and panic are gripping crypto markets as Bitcoin plunged under the US$39,000 mark this afternoon.

Bitcoin had recovered slightly to change hands at US$39,250 mark around 3.55pm AEST — still down 12.9 per cent from 24 hours ago.

About an hour earlier, it dropped to a four and a half month low of US$38,475, having pulled back nearly 40 per cent in the space of just over a month.

The crypto fear and greed index was a 23, indicating “extreme fear” – and that indicator was issued last night, before the worst of the selloff. Just a week ago it was a 68, pointing to greed.

Burn it all to the ground. Massive sell offs right now on binance. I have a feeling we are just starting to see the pain!

So much fear. Just waiting for the right sign and time to buy back in and stack more!!!#btc #Bitcoin #link #eth #crypto #cryptocurrencies

— Todd Dillinge #BRINGTHECHAOS (@toddtrigger) May 19, 2021

#Bitcoin traders rn pic.twitter.com/QeiIRr290Z

— David Turos (@davidturos) May 19, 2021

Fundamentals haven’t changed, FUD is well coordinated and all over the place causing fear index at its maximum, all this while bitcoin trades around key fibo support (~40K$). This is a 100% buy signal. It’s past 4am here in Europe and I’m not missing it. Lark is right.

— Odrikez ∞/21M (@odrikez) May 19, 2021

Me looking at #crypto right now pic.twitter.com/SNXv1owOo6

— Lark Davis (@TheCryptoLark) May 19, 2021

Some 260,000 crypto derivatives traders had seen their positions liquidated in the past hour, to the tune of US$806 million, according to ByBt. (These traders were using leverage in the hopes of magnifying their gains, but instead lost the value of their entire trade — with some, depending on their settings, wiping out their entire account).

Liquidated long on XBTUSD: Sell 1,308,479 @ 38625 ~ BEYOND GODLIKE x29 ~ You Get Nothing! You Lose! Good Day, Sir!

— REKT (@BXRekt) May 19, 2021

All but a handful top 100 cryptocurrencies were down from where they were 24 hours, led by Polygon (MATIC), which was trading at US$2.21, up 5.4 per cent.

The selloff meant that BTC was trading under its 200-day exponential moving average (EMA) on the daily charts of US$42,170 for the first time since September. If it did not bounce soon then a drop to US$36,000 or US$32,000 would be in play, technical analysts said.

$BTC: The 200D EMA is getting tapped hard… $38k might be next. Lots of sell volume coming in, kind of scary. I am still thinking this is support for now but let’s see. #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/6Mw510Mmax

— Altcoin Sherpa (@AltcoinSherpa) May 19, 2021

#BTC broke the major physiological support of $40,000. The last support for this bull run is $38,000 and if BTC unable to hold it we may see $32,000. We may see a bounce towards $44,000 from here. Let’s see how market react now. There is a lot of panic in the market now.#Bitcoin

— Abdul Mateen (@askmateen) May 19, 2021

$BTC we’ve weekly support here. If it continues down the possibility will be to 36 pic.twitter.com/S66bu11Muz

— zaof (@hamzahaof) May 19, 2021