According to data from CryptoCompare, around 21:00 UTC on Wednesday (February 19), Bitcoin suffered a 7.5% flash crash, dropping almost $800 in just 45 minutes, as you can see in the 24-hour BTC-USD price chart shown below:
At 21:00 UTC on Wednesday, Bitcoin was trading at $10,146, and by 21:45 UTC, it had dropped to its intraday low of $9,379, i.e. a loss of $767 in value in less than one hour.
As usual, when Bitcoin fell, the vast majority of altcoins fell also, some (e.g. EOS) suffering an even harder fall.
At press time (around 07:20 UTC on February 20), Bitcoin has recovered somewhat to $9,625. This means that currently Bitcoin’s market cap is $175 billion, and Bitcoin Dominance stands at 62.75%.
Bitcoin’s return-on-investment (ROI) figures (against USD) for the past 7-day period, past 30-day period, year-to-date (YTD) period, and past one-year period are -6.1%, +10.10%, +33.28, and +139.88% respectively.
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which “provides an easy overview of the current sentiment of the Bitcoin / crypto market at a glance”, currently has the value 44 (i.e. in the “Fear” territory):
Popular macroeconomist and crypto/trader Alex Krüger took this opportunity to remind traders not to speculate with Bitcoin on high leverage:
People foolish enough to speculate with bitcoin on high leverage and far away stops (i.e. longer term trades) would do well to remember $BTC can move 10%-40% in a matter of hours, and take all your money away.
— Alex Krüger (@krugermacro) February 20, 2020
As for Josh Rager, another prominent crypto analyst/trader, he offered this bit of technical analysis:
If price breaks and closes $9300, will likely make its way to $8600-$8700
If price can make its way back above $9800 will be a good start for continuation to the upside
Lower lows and lower highs starting to print in this downward channel
Take it level by level pic.twitter.com/ibT6OqOyj4
— Josh Rager 📈 (@Josh_Rager) February 20, 2020
With regard to market volatility, crypto exchange Kraken’s recently-released report “January 2020 Volatility Report” made a number of interesting observations, but the key takeaway was:
Shifts in sentiment and open interest in Jan. indicate greater volatility in the coming weeks or months.
Finally, on the topic of Bitcoin’s next block mining reward halving in May 2020, Binance Co-Founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao (aka “CZ”), expressed the following opinion during an interview yesterday with BLOCKTV Senior Anchor Yael Lavy:
I personally believe the halving has not been priced in.
Featured Image by “Pexels” via Pixabay.com
