Bitcoin and other top crypto tokens extended their losses for another session amid the rising fears of recession. The decline continued amid a hot UK inflation report and massive sell-off on Binance. Despite encouraging first quarter earnings from a number of major banks, investors remain watchful.
Bitcoin dropped another 2 per cent to barely hold the $28,000 mark in the last 24 hours. Its largest peer, Ethereum, outperformed as the second largest crypto token was slightly lower and remained below $1,950-levels. Pain in the altcoins, however, was more.
Market performance has been sideways with a downward bias in the last 24 hours. BTC is trading in the $28,000 range. The two-day continuous drop could be triggered by a $400 million sell order on Binance, said Parth Chaturvedi, Crypto Ecosystem Lead, CoinSwitch.
“On the regulatory front, the US seems to be lagging behind as market liquidity seems to be moving away from the country. Along similar lines, Coinbase has received a license to set up an offshore exchange in Bermuda. European lawmakers, on the other hand, have gained a competitive advantage after voting in favor of the first set of new rules pertaining to crypto markets,” he said.
Barring the US dollar pegged stablecoins, all of the top tokens were trading with cuts on Friday. Dogecoin plunged another 5 per cent, while XRP dropped 4 per cent, Polkadot, Cardano, Polygon and Avalanche shed 3 per cent each. Shina Inu and Solana were down 2 per cent each.
The global cryptocurrency market cap was trading lower, slipping below $1.2 trillion-mark as it fell about another one per cent in the last 24 hours. However, the total trading volumes plunged about 19 per cent to $51.21 billion.
Layer 2 solution Polygon’s token – MATIC – has corrected steeply in the ongoing crypto market correction, hitting the bottom edge of a parallel channel that has been in play for much of 2023.
MATIC currently trades at just above the psychological support of $1. If this level is lost, the triple whammy of losing the parallel channel, this support level, and the trendline support in play since last year, may send the token declining to $0.95 and lower.
Bears may see confirmation for this after a retest of the parallel channel’s resistance, if that level is lost. For bulls, a market structure change taking MATIC to at least $1.1 is a necessity.
Major levels
Support: $1, $0.95, $0.9
Resistance: $1.10, $1.2
(Views and recommendations given in this section are the analysts’ own and do not represent those of Business Today. Please consult your financial adviser before taking any position in the asset/s mentioned.)