Bitcoin (BTC) came within $1,000 of its previous cycle all-time highs on June 14 as liquidations mounted across crypto markets.
BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView
Bitcoin price hits 18-month lows
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting $20,816, on Bitstamp, its lowest since the week of December 14, 2020.
A sell-off that began before the weekend intensified after the June 13 Wall Street opening bell, with Bitcoin and altcoins falling in step with United States equities.
The S&P 500 finished the day down 3.9%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index shed 4.7% ahead of key comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve on its anti-inflation policy.
The worst of the rout was reserved for crypto, however, and with that, BTC/USD lost 22.4% from the start of the week to the time of writing.
The pair was also “uncomfortably close” to crossing the $20,000 mark, trading firm QCP Capital noted, this representing the all-time high from its previous halving cycle, something which had never happened before.
In a circular to Telegram channel subscribers, QCP flagged both the inflation topic and potential insolvency at fintech protocol Celsius as driving the sell-off.
“We have been expressing concern about the collapse of a significant credit player since the LUNA blowup. The market is now panicking about the impact and contagion if Celsius becomes insolvent,” it explained:
Some key liquidation levels that the market is looking out for are 1,150 in ETH, 0.8 in stETH/ETH and 20,000 in BTC. We are getting uncomfortably close.
For other analysts, all bets were off when it came to guessing the BTC price floor or whether key trendlines would hold as support.
Rekt Capital warned that the 200-week simple moving average (SMA) at $22,400 had not been accompanied by significant volume interest, leaving the door open for a test of lower levels.
“BTC has reached the 200-week MA but the volume influx isn’t as strong as in previous Bear Market Bottoms formed at the 200 MA,” he told Twitter followers:
But downside wicking below the 200 MA occurs & perhaps this wicking needs to occur this time to inspire a strong influx of volume.
At the time of writing, the 200 SMA appeared to be acting more like resistance than support on low timeframes.
BTC/USD 1-week candle chart (Bitstamp) with 200 SMA. Source: TradingView
Altcoin futures index shows full force of retracement
On altcoins, Ether (ETH) fell to 40% below the previous week’s high to near the $1,000 mark.
Should that break, it would be the first time that ETH/USD had traded at three-digit prices since January 2021. As Cointelegraph reported, the pair had already crossed its $1,530 peak from Bitcoin’s previous halving cycle.
Across altcoins, there was little cause for celebration in this downtrend, Rekt Capital argued, highlighting flagging alt presence versus Bitcoin.
In a sign of the pain affecting all crypto traders, meanwhile, data from on-chain monitoring resource Coinglass confirmed cross-market liquidations passing $1.2 billion in just 24 hours.
Crypto liquidations chart. Source: Coinglass