Markets Update: Bitcoin Markets Retrace to the $15,000 Area

The price of bitcoin has undergone a significant retracement today, trading within a 20% range, having fallen from an all-time high of over $17,000 to establish support at just below $14,000. As of this writing, the price is consolidating in the $15,000 area.

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The Bitcoin Markets Have Undergone a Much-Anticipated Retracement

Bitcoin broke above $10,000 for the first time on the 29th of November before consolidating for several days and then ramping up to break above $12,000 on December 6th. The break above $12,000 accelerated to produce two days of parabolic bullish momentum, with prices driving up to set a new all-time high of $16,667 on Bitstamp, $17,171 USD on Bitfinex, and $19,340 USD on Coinbase.

Today’s retracement has caused the stochastic RSI to test the 80 threshold on the daily charts, with some analysts anticipating that further dumping could ensue should the stochastic RSI dive below 80. On the weekly chart, the markets appear to be vertical, with the chart currently showing four consecutive large green candles, and the stochastic RSI pushing above the 80 threshold for the first time since early November as of this writing.

Today’s retracement produced a dip to test the 61.8 retracement before bouncing back up to the 23.6% area when measured from the recent breakout zone of approximately $8,000.

Many altcoin markets are bouncing today following bitcoin’s retracement. This upswing follows a wave of significant sell-offs relative to bitcoin which occurred throughout many altcoin markets as bitcoin went parabolic above the $15,000 area.

Litecoin Sets Record USD Price High

Litecoin has a new all-time high, with LTC currently trading for more than $120 USD, after making gains of around 30% in a matter of just hours. Paired against bitcoin, LTC has gained over 40% in 24 hours, following a considerable loss of value against BTC the preceding day.

Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Ripple have all made gains of over 10% when paired against the dollar today, whilst other major altcoin markets Zcash, Ethereum Classic, Dash, and Monero all produced gains of between 5% and 10%. Monero, Dash, and Stellar appear to be bouncing to retest the area of the markets’ respective all-time highs, which were set in recent days. As of this writing, Dash is trading for more than $720, XMR is trading for almost $280, and STR/XLM is trading for around $0.135. Bitcoin Cash is valued at approximately $1,400, with Ethereum testing $450.

Bitcoin currently comprises more than 61% of the entire cryptocurrency markets by capitalization and boasts a total market cap of nearly $260 billion. Ethereum comprises the second largest market, with roughly $45 billion, followed by Bitcoin Cash with $25 billion, and IOTA which, following price gains of more than 300% since the start of December, now possesses the fourth largest cryptocurrency market with more than $12 billion in total market capitalization.

How do you expect the bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets will react to the launch of CBOE futures contracts this weekend? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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