The cryptocurrency market’s recent rally stalled late in the evening on December 24th, with Bitcoin failing to stabilize above $4,000. Although the overall markets are still sitting higher than where they were trading at last week, their inability to maintain upwards momentum likely means the 2018 bear market will continue into 2019.
Bitcoin Drops to $3,800, Analyst Believes Further Downside Could be Imminent
At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading down marginally at its current price of $3,820. Earlier this week, Bitcoin climbed to highs of $4,300, at which point bears swiftly applied downwards pressure sending it to its current price levels.
Following the drop on December 24th, The Crypto Dog, a popular cryptocurrency analyst on Twitter, told his followers that he was stopped out of his long positions, and is not looking to go net-long until the markets show greater stability.
“This looks bad. I am stopped out of $ALT positions. Holding my short. Not looking to go net positive $crypto for awhile [sic] unless conditions change considerably. Global markets in disarray, plenty of possible downside still in $crypto, I'd rather not risk the exposure,” he explained.
Despite expressing trepidation regarding the current state of the markets, The Crypto Dog also said that now is not the ideal time to enter fresh short positions.
“PS: this does not look like a good short entry. Don't go FOMO into shorts here b/c Crypto Dog is posting bearish tweets,” he added.
Currently, the overall cryptocurrency market capitalization is sitting at nearly $129 billion, up slightly from its weekly low of $120 billion.
Altcoins Trade Mixed, Down from Weekly Highs
Bitcoin’s inability to stabilize above $4,000 has led most cryptocurrencies to drop, although many altcoins are still trading up from their recently established lows.
At the time of writing, Ethereum (ETH) is trading down 1% at its current price of $129. Ethereum skyrocketed over 60% earlier this week from lows of $100 to highs of $160, before settling around its current price levels.
XRP also saw a relatively large rally earlier this week, jumping from lows of $0.35 to highs of nearly $0.45. Since then, XRP has surrendered most of these gains, and is currently trading down 2.6% at its current price of $0.373.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is one of today’s best performing cryptocurrencies and is trading up 2.4% at its current price of $173. BCH rallied starting on December 18th, where its price pumped from lows of $90 to highs of $225, before settling at its current price.
As we near the beginning of 2019, it is becoming increasingly likely that the 2018 bear market will persist into 2019.