Sudden bearish sentiment takes hold as BTC price action returns to an area not seen since late July.
Bitcoin (BTC) fell rapidly on Aug. 19 as the culmination of a week’s sideways action ended in disappointment for bulls.
New lows “just a matter of time
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it dropped 6.2% in a single hourly candle.
Reacting, traders hoped that a rebound could allow for consolidation higher than current spot price levels, which were under $22,000 at the time of writing.
“Well, hopefully that was liquidity seeking, otherwise it’s over,” a gloomy Crypto Chase told Twitter followers.
Fellow account Il Capo of Crypto, who had long forecast a return to lower levels, was resigned to new lows being “just a matter of time.”
Consolidation under $22,500, he warned in his latest update, would be “very bearish.”
Second option playing out. Any test of 23500 as resistance is a good sell opportunity.
Consolidation below 22500 (clean break + use the level as resistance) would be very bearish = 21k or lower
New lows are just a matter of time. https://t.co/MzxrDCZuiZ pic.twitter.com/I5PatYduNW
— il Capo Of Crypto (@CryptoCapo_) August 19, 2022
Prior to the drop, meanwhile, analyst Venturefounder said that any price below $23,000 would be a “decent price to buy in the long term,” adding that it was unlikely that Bitcoin had exited its bear market so far.
Relative strength index (RSI) being still near all-time lows spoke to the extent to which BTC/USD was oversold, he argued.
There were nonetheless signs of buying emerging below key bear market support levels including the 200-week moving average and key whale entry levels.
According to data from on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant, exchange outflows for the first few hours of Aug. 19 already totaled 21,500 BTC.
Ether retraces August gains
On altcoins, the knock-on impact of Bitcoin’s return to three-week lows was predictably keenly felt.
Related: Options data shows Bitcoin’s short-term uptrend is at risk if BTC falls below $23K
Ether (ETH), the largest altcoin by market cap, was down 5.2% on the day at the time of writing, trading near $1,750.
Elsewhere, other major tokens lost in excess of 11%, with Dogecoin (DOGE) the worst performer in the top ten, down 13.6%.
“Bear bias now unless $1790 is reclaimed/flipped to support,” Crypto Chase added about ETH in part of a separate tweet.
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