Cryptocurrency market update: Altcoins down over 20%

Bitcoin and the entire cryptocurrency market seem to be in a clear downward spiral. At the time of writing, the entire market has lost over 10% of its total value in just a matter of days.

However, should traders and investors really be worried? After all, aren’t these kinds of retracements welcomed by enthusiasts to make new entries?

Let’s take a quick look at the market and see what’s going on with the top coins.

Bitcoin

As you can see from the chart, BTC has dropped down to its 20-day EMA, where price has bounced slightly. Still, it is quite close to its early July lows.

What I expect to happen is for price to bounce between $9,000 and $10,000 before making its way upwards again, towards the $12,000 and $13,000 levels and above.

Volume also seems to be increasing as well. Over the past two weeks, volume has gone from $20 billion to $27 billion. Also, Bitcoin’s market dominance is already above 65%, going towards 70%.

Putting all this information together, we’re now clearly on the right path to reach $15,000 – or maybe even $20,000 – by the end of 2019.

Hopefully this latest downturn is just a bump in the road and the market will pick up its positive momentum again soon.

Pay attention to retracements back down towards the 200-day EMA to make new entries.

Ethereum

Bitcoin may have had a bad trading weekend, but Ethereum has fared much worse. Since last Wednesday, it has lost about 35% of its total value, going from close to $320 to $204 before recovering back to the $220 region. Depending on how BTC performs, we can expect ETH to follow.

If we look at the chart above, we can clearly see that ETH is trading above its 200-day EMA – a key support level (as we saw on Sunday). As long as price is able to close above this region, I wouldn’t expect ETH to drop any further.

With luck, the market will recover its momentum and Ethereum will be back to its 50-day EMA and 20-day EMA in no time.

Litecoin

Litecoin, one of the top performers of 2019, hasn’t been able to sustain its yearly gains, and it has finally come tumbling down below most of its EMAs – much like Ethereum.

At the moment, LTC is trading just above its 200-day EMA at around $88. Just a few days ago, Litecoin was trading above its 20-day EMA at around $117. In essence, the coin has lost over 30% in just three days.

As I mentioned with Ethereum, there’s not much to say given the rising influence of Bitcoin’s price on the market. My hope is that this is just a momentary dip, and investors will take this opportunity to make new entries.

If Litecoin is able to keep trading between its 200-day and 100-day EMAs, we shouldn’t expect any sudden drops, as the 200-day EMA seems to be providing solid support. 

Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin Cash has also been hit hard by this sudden move downwards in the market. Its price, which was trading above $400 just last week, is now just above $290, with BCH losing close to 40% of its total market value in just a few days.

Although BCH has been one of the worst performers of the last few days, price-wise, it is still far away from its yearly lows (the coin was trading at close to $120 earlier in the year).

Looking at the chart, we can see price is trading below all its EMAs, even though volume-wise BCH is still supported by a massive wall near $168-$170. As long as BTC recovers, I expect BCH to do the same.

Ripple

Ripple (XRP) is one of the few coins I am actively avoiding. It’s not that fundamentals aren’t strong, as adoption-wise the currency seems to be experiencing more and more transactions, but looking at the price action, things do not look pretty.

XRP is now close to its yearly low, which was around $0.283, and it is trading below all its EMAs – a sign of great weakness. If XRP breaks down below from where it’s sitting now – close to $0.31 – I’m not entirely sure we’ve seen the 2019 bottom for the coin.

Investors should be weary of making new entries as the market is currently under turmoil, and the coins that usually take the hardest hits are the ones on a clear downtrend – like XRP.

Hopefully, if Bitcoin recovers, XRP will soon follow. However, for the moment, I’ll keep watching the price action for a sudden tell.

Conclusion

At this point, the market could either go up or down, and it all comes down to BTC’s performance. As we know, its dominance is growing by the day, meaning its impact on the entire market is also increasing.

Let’s hope BTC can push the rest of the market upwards.

Safe trades!