The price of Bitcoin has plummeted massively below the $57k price, as the crypto asset faces its worst trading month since the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX.
The cryptocurrency value was down by nearly 16% in April, only slightly better than the decline witnessed in November 2022, according to data from Bloomberg.
Amid renewed fears of U.S. stagflation, a worst-case scenario for risk assets, crypto markets are in the red. With the price of Bitcoin trading at $56,913 as at the time of writing this report, the calls for dip buying have reportedly surged.
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With the price of Bitcoin significantly dropping in the last 24 hours, this has spurred a very high level of fear, doubt, and unrest among traders amidst predictions that the price of Bitcoin could decline further to the $52k price or below.
In a recent analysis, cryptocurrency expert Ali Martinez highlighted a significant trend concerning Bitcoin’s price dynamics. He noted that the last time Bitcoin tested the 100-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) with the Relative Strength Index (R$I) dipping to 36 was in late January, which subsequently triggered a substantial price rebound. Now, Bitcoin finds itself once again at these critical levels.
However, Martinez cautioned investors to be vigilant, suggesting that a sustained close below the 100-day EMA could potentially indicate a downward movement toward the 200-day EMA, which is at the $52,000 level.
Recall that the surge in demand fueled by the anticipation of ETFs propelled Bitcoin to an all-time high of almost $74,000 in March. The approval of these funds by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January
had created a new avenue for engagement, surpassing everyone’s expectations. However, a sharp drop of approximately 5% on ETFs has pushed the market down with a ripple effect on the rest of the crypto market.
Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, suffered an 18% decline in April, marking its largest monthly drop since June 2022. Also, smaller cryptocurrencies such as Ether, Solana, and several Meme coins experienced substantial losses, while shares of crypto companies also closed lower.
Notably, the highly anticipated Bitcoin halving, a four-year event that reduces the supply of new coins and historically acts as a price catalyst, which occurred on April 20, had minimal impact this time around. While the halving did not directly affect transaction processing, it did cut the amount of new Bitcoin awarded to miners in half.
While there are hopes that the price of Bitcoin will likely rally back up this new month, several experts have stated that in terms of seasonality, May is not a good month for BTC. Over the past 13 years, bitcoin has ended a given month up on seven occasions and down six times. The average rise was 31.3%, and the average decline was 14.5%. Meanwhile, over the last three years, during May, BTC has slid 20% on average.
The market appears to be on a precipice currently, as it debates which direction to take, with significant bullish and bearish narratives.
Prominent Bitcoin detractor Peter Schiff recently took to his X handle to predict that the price of Bitcoin will plunge back to the $20,000 level.
He wrote,
“To manipulate the price of #Bitcoin higher $MSTR now owns 214,400 Bitcoin, at an average price of $35,180. The average price was under $12K when @saylor first bought. When Bitcoin trades back down to $20K, still a high price, MSTR will have an unrealized loss of $3.25 billion.”
Schiff has also accused MicroStrategy, which owns a total of 214,400 Bitcoin, of manipulating the largest cryptocurrency.
However, even though Bitcoin has experienced a daunting ride over the past few months, Pomp Investments founder and partner, Anthony Pompliano says Bitcoin can cross $100,000 in the next 12-18 months.