(Kitco News) - Volatility is on the rise across the cryptocurrency market as investors seem unsure of what to do following yesterday’s higher-than-expected Consumer Price Index (CPI) print, which led to a pump, and then a widespread dump in financial markets worldwide.
Shortly after the CPI was revealed on Thursday, stock prices began trending higher with cryptos soon to follow, but the positive momentum reversed on Friday as the reality of the worsening state of the global economy led investors to opt for a more conservative investment strategy.
Data from TradingView shows that Bitcoin (BTC) price experienced a 10% inter-day swing, oscillating between a low of $18,130 near midday on Thursday to a high of $19,958 in early trading on Friday, and has since retraced to support near $19,200 which is almost exactly located at the midpoint of its month-long trading range.
BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The top cryptos “solid rebound after hitting a four-week low on Thursday” was noted by Kitco senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff in his morning BTC update, while also offering a word of caution that it wasn’t quite out of the woods yet.
“Bears still have the slight overall near-term technical advantage,” Wyckoff warned, highlighting that “bulls now have some momentum on their side to suggest more choppy and sideways trading at lower price levels in the near term.”
A similar outlook of sideways price action in the near term was offered by Rekt Capital, who provided the following chart and noted that “BTC still remains below the old green macro Range Low support of ~$20000.”
BTC/USD 1-month chart. Source: Rekt Capital via Twitter
“Technically speaking, unless BTC is able to reclaim green as support and therefore the $19,800-$23,300 range - price is set up for bearish continuation,” Rekt Capital said.
From a historical perspective, there is no guarantee that BTC will experience a notable decline from this point, and with it currently trading near its 300-week moving average (MA), past behavior shows that this is “One of the best spots to long the asset,” according to Michaël van de Poppe, CEO and founder of Eight Global.
#Bitcoin holds the 300-Week MA as support in previous bear cycles.
— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) October 14, 2022
2014 it tested that level, 2020 we tested and now we're landing on it again.
One of the best spots to long the asset, historically. pic.twitter.com/hOHSBlvGzG
No place for investors to hide
There were sparse places to hide from the market carnage on Friday as financial markets around the world fell as the U.S. dollar once again trended higher.
At the close of markets, the S&P, Dow and Nasdaq all recorded losses on the day, down 2.37%, 1.34% and 3.08%, respectively.
Altcoins, likewise, offered little protection from losses as the vast majority of tokens mirrored Bitcoin’s behavior and drifted lower throughout the day.
Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360
Several decentralized finance tokens did manage to buck the trend to post double-digit gains on the day including MDEX (MDX) which climbed 87.5%, a 12.9% gain for SushiSwap, and an 11.56% increase for Just (JST).
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $920 billion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 40%.
