Bitcoin has slipped below the crucial $19,000 to $18,708 for the first time since July 13. This caused $74 million in Bitcoin futures liquidations at derivatives exchanges – the largest in almost three weeks. The drop shows a 24% correction from the rally to $25,000 on August 25.
Analysts believe investors are shedding Bitcoin partly due to fears that the US Federal Reserve will continue to hike interest rates. It wants to combat the four-decade high inflation by keeping interest rates high. But this has led investors to sell off riskier assets like stocks and BTC. Moreover, the sell-off picked up last week when Russia shut down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline stopping gas to Europe and creating massive uncertainty in the markets.
And there is the upcoming Ethereum Merge that is casting shadows on the popular cryptocurrency. Ether gained 7% in the 48 hours preceding the market correction. At the time of writing this article, Ethereum was trading at $1,506. It lost 8.29% in the last 24 hours. The altcoins also recorded massive drops. Polygon MATIC is the biggest loser, it dropped nearly 10% of its value. Polygon is down by 8.95% in the last 24 hours, as per data from CoinMarketCap. Cardano lost 8.02%, Solana 6.02% and XRP 5.14%.
Joe DiPasquale, CEO of BitBull Capital, said each failed attempt increased the likelihood of a test at the bottom of the price range near $18,000. He says that the price from a technical perspective remains in line with their projections. They are looking to accumulate between here and $15,000.
