Markets Update: Cryptocurrencies Shed Billions in Bloody Sell-Off

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts have been glued to the price charts over the last 48 hours as digital assets across the entire crypto-economy have plunged significantly. Since our last markets update two days ago, the digital currency ecosystem has lost over $30 billion and the overall market capitalization of all 2,000+ coins now sits at around $159 billion.     

Also read: Cryptocurrency ATM Growth Spikes Exponentially to 4,000 Machines Worldwide

The Sell-Off and Shakeup

Markets have been bloody over the last few days with nearly every digital asset reaching its lowest price point of the year. Traditionally, cryptocurrency prices are usually bullish during November, but this year has been the exact opposite. Even though prices are extremely low, cryptocurrency market volumes have more than doubled over the last 24 hours. This shows that traders are playing new positions and scooping up coins at much lower prices in hopes their value will rise again.

Top 10 cryptocurrencies on Nov. 20, 2018.

Right now the price of bitcoin core (BTC) is around $4,800, but during overnight trading sessions BTC stumbled down to $4,237 per coin. Ripple (XRP) markets have been doing better than most but had dipped to a low of $0.41 per XRP. The XRP token is down 6.6% today, and over 13.4% over the last seven days. XRP is now back up to $0.46 per token according to the most recent data. Ethereum (ETH) now commands the third position among the top 10 market capitalizations and is down 35% for the week. Currently, ETH is trading for $144 per coin and holds a $14.8 billion market valuation. Lastly, stellar (XLM) has been pushed back to fifth position and is trading for $0.21 this Tuesday. Stellar markets are down 23% for the week but briefly managed to take the fourth position among the top 10 market caps.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Market Action

Bitcoin cash (BCH) markets took a pretty hard hit this week and prices have dropped about 54% over the last seven days. However, prices have varied depending on which exchange is being observed due to some metrics splitting the price of BCH into two. For instance, the aggregated price for BCH on data sites like Coinmarketcap show $255 per BCH, but other trading platforms like Bitstamp show a spot price of $302.

BCH daily chart.

Further, bitcoin cash trade volume globally is super low compared to the rest of the crypto-economy, with only $134.9 million global trades over the last day. This is due to a lot of exchanges which are still not servicing BCH orders, five days after the network fork. Again this has made currency pairs much different than in weeks prior as ETH is the top pair traded with BCH today, capturing 34% of all BCH trades. This is followed by BTC (29%), USDT (17.7%), KRW (13.7), and JPY (3.1%). BCH/USD markets show only 0.55% of all BCH trades are currently using USD for swaps.

Technical Indicators

Looking at the charts on Bitstamp currently shows an average BCH/USD spot price of around $303. Relative Strength Index levels were screaming a low of -10, showing significant oversold conditions during the early morning trading sessions, but have bumped back up to around -36. The RSI and Stochastic still show conditions are oversold, but BCH prices are starting to kick back into a higher gear and these conditions may not last long.

Bitstamp BCH/USD Nov. 20, 2018.

The two Simple Moving Averages (SMA) show the short-term 100 SMA is above the longer term 200 SMA, indicating a possible trend reversal from bearish to bullish could be on the cards. Order books show a different story, however, as both sides have significantly sized buy and sell walls. On the upside, there will be some good pit stops around $360 and higher and on the backside foundational support from the current vantage point until $240.

Bitstamp BCH/USD Nov. 20, 2018.

The Verdict: Market Participants Still Confident in the Long Term

It’s hard to gauge how the cryptocurrency community is dealing with the big drops in value as many still seem confident in the long-term future of digital assets and blockchain technology. However, most crypto markets saw a huge sell-off, recording their lowest figures since Oct. 2017. The five coins that have shed the most over the last 24 hours are centrality (CENNZ), maker (MKR), aeternity (AE), waves (WAVES), and bitcoin gold (BTG). Meanwhile, Bitcoin Cash proponents are waiting for more businesses to open up services as exchanges and wallets have slowly been coming back online over the last 24 hours. According to data collected from Coinmarketcap and Poloniex, the split coin BSV has been trading at between $40-60 over the last two hours.

Where do you see the price of bitcoin cash and other coins headed from here? Let us know in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: Price articles and markets updates are intended for informational purposes only and should not to be considered as trading advice. Neither Bitcoin.com nor the author is responsible for any losses or gains, as the ultimate decision to conduct a trade is made by the reader. Always remember that only those in possession of the private keys are in control of the “money.”

Images via Shutterstock, Trading View, and Satoshi Pulse.

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