Bitcoin declined by 1.2%, trading slightly above $27,000 on Wednesday during the Asian afternoon, following increased tensions in the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel. This global geopolitical uncertainty has led to a decrease in investor confidence, thereby destabilizing the market for risky assets.
Earlier this week, traders had speculated that prices would plummet as investors appear to be retreating from traditional equities and risk assets. Instead, they seem to be favoring safer assets like gold and oil, which have seen price increases of up to 6% over the past week.
Notably, the crypto markets have also been hit, with an overall slump of about 1.6% in the past 24 hours, as per the data from the CoinDesk Market Index (CMI). This index is a comprehensive tool for tracking several hundred tokens. Ether, one of the major cryptocurrencies, also saw a drop of 2.2%, extending its weekly losses to over 5%. XRP tokens were among the worst hit in the altcoins category, registering a decline of 3%.
| Cryptocurrency | % Change in Past 24 hours |
|---|---|
| Bitcoin | -1.2% |
| Ether | -2.2% |
| XRP | -3% |
| DOT | -3% |
| MATIC | -3% |
| XTZ | -8% |
| RNDR | +3% |
Other major tokens also took a hit in the ongoing market downturn. Cryptocurrencies like Polkadot’s DOT and Polygon’s MATIC slumped by 3%, and Tezos’s XTZ saw an 8% drop. Interestingly, in this scenario, Render Network’s RNDR emerged as the only large-cap token that gained value, with a 3% surge in the past 24 hours.
Market analysts at FxPro noted that last week’s unsuccessful attempt by Bitcoin to break the $28,000 barrier sparked a selling wave that drove the price back down to $27,000. They observed that this rush to sell-off suggests that investors are cautious about maintaining their funds in risky investments at the moment.
- The price of Bitcoin, like any other goods or commodity in the market, is largely dependent on supply and demand dynamics. When more people want to purchase Bitcoin, the price goes up. When more people want to sell, the price falls.
- The ‘unsuccessful attempt to break the $28,000 barrier’ refers to a situation where Bitcoin’s price went up (due to more people wanting to buy) but couldn’t reach the $28,000 level because it didn’t have enough demand (buyers) to support the price at that level.
- The ‘selling wave’ that took the price back down to $27,000 happened because after failing to break $28,000, many Bitcoin holders started selling their Bitcoins. This sudden increase in supply (of people wanting to sell Bitcoins) with not enough demand (people wanting to buy Bitcoins) drove the price down.
- The ‘rush to sell-off’ refers to this rapid selling by Bitcoin holders. FxPro analysts are suggesting that this rush to sell may indicate a general sentiment of caution among investors – they might be feeling that the price of Bitcoin won’t rise much more in the near future, because it couldn’t break the $28,000 barrier this time.
- This analysis is suggesting that investors are being cautious about keeping their money in ‘risky investments’ (like Bitcoin which can be highly volatile, i.e., its price can rise or fall drastically in short periods). Since keeping money in stable, less volatile investments is a safer option, this may indicate that investors are currently preferring safety over potential high returns.
The analysts pointed out an interesting trend; the pressure on Bitcoin grew even as the risk appetite in traditional markets showed signs of recovery. They attributed this development to Monday’s defaulted US debt markets rather than a reallocation of money from one asset type to another.