Bitcoiners are debating whether the bottom has been hit, or not. (Getty Images)
When bottom? Fear grips crypto markets as Bitcoin price hits three-month low
Coinhead
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Has Bitcoin hit bottom — or is the dip just getting started?
Crypto fans are hodling their bags and hoping the market wouldn’t fall further following five days of pain kicked off by Elon Musk’s reversal on Bitcoin.
The original cryptocurrency plunged to a more than three-month low of US$42,300 at 2.10pm AEST on Monday before rebounding somewhat to US$43,500 by 3pm. Some were calling a bottom —
BOTTOM.
— Bitcoin-Fund-Manager.com join us. Welcome (@OTC_Bitcoin) May 17, 2021
$btc #Bitcoin
Not much time left before the dip is in at least for the next hours. Still no panic on #altcoins + double bottom for most so it might end up as the boring dip you never buy.btc dominance expected to bounce from here. pic.twitter.com/V17UubpT6o
— Toccata (@pangermie) May 17, 2021
Others were wary of a “bull trap” and BTC heading back down to US$33,000 or lower.
#Bitcoin bulltrap forming at 43000? The cool in crypto is out…for this bull market? Next stop 37000 then 29000. Maybe bottom is 20000 for $BTC? Head and shoulders neckline broken anyway… 🐻
Not financial advice pic.twitter.com/dUA0Z9ioT8
— spacebartender (@spacebartender) May 17, 2021
Dave Haslop, the Gold Coast founder of the crypto trading and education platform the Crypto Den, told Stockhead in a message at 2.41pm that Bitcoin “literally just hit a very key level IMO.
“Breaking this level and we see some major bearish price action. I’ll wait for this daily candle to decide.”
With BTC down more than 10 per cent in the past 24 hours, crypto fans were taking some consolation that altcoins weren’t taking more of a beating. Most were down between 10 and 15 per cent, with Safemoon the worst top 100 crypto, falling 25 per cent. Holo and Solana were even up modestly and Cardano was holding above US$2, at $US2.11.
The crypto Fear & Greed Index was at a 27 on a scale of 0 to 100, indicating “fear,” up slightly from yesterday’s 20 readout of “extreme fear” — the most fear the market sentiment indicator has found since April 2020, the height of the pandemic.
Sentiment got a boost at just before 4pm, when Musk clarified that Tesla hadn’t sold any of its Bitcoin holdings after all.
To clarify speculation, Tesla has not sold any Bitcoin
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 17, 2021
BTC prices jumped from US$42,600 to US$44,800 in the half-hour after Musk’s tweet, regaining the level it was trading at around noon.
