(Kitco News) - The cryptocurrency market plunged even deeper into the crypto winter on Monday as the ongoing ramifications of the collapse of FTX continue to reverberate across the market, leaving sparsely few tokens unharmed.
The swapping of Ethereum (ETH) acquired by the FTX hacker led to a sell-off in Ether price that dumped the top altcoin to support at $1,100 while concerns about the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) helped bears take control of the market and dump the top crypto to its lowest price in over two years.
Data from TradingView shows that an afternoon selling spree pushed Bitcoin (BTC) to a daily low of $15,480 – its lowest price since November 2020 – where bulls scrambled to reinforce their defenses and push the price back above $15,656 at the time of writing.
BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
Senior Kitco technical analyst Jim Wyckoff noted in his morning Bitcoin brief that the “recent price action has been sideways and choppy,” which Wyckoff theorized may “begin to favor the bulls just a bit.” Unfortunately, a spike in concerns around GBTC and the long-term health of the Digital Currency Group led many traders to exit the market to await more favorable trading conditions.
“The bears still have the overall near-term technical advantage as prices are not that far above the recent two-year low,” Wyckoff concluded.
The bounce seen in BTC price after hitting a daily low was addressed by Caleb Franzen, founder of Cubics Analytics, who posted the following tweet noting that he had been predicting the possibility of new lows for months.
#Bitcoin trying to catch bids after retesting the YTD lows. Not surprised to see it jump a bit after hitting that level, as I'm sure there were a bunch of limit orders in that range.
— Caleb Franzen (@CalebFranzen) November 21, 2022
Time will tell how this shakes out, but I think I've been clear (for months) to expect new lows. pic.twitter.com/wSsPSPeFSH
As for what it will take to pull the crypto market out of the downward spiral it's currently experiencing, the most widely agreed upon catalyst was provided in an analysis from banking giant JPMorgan.
"In order to have a sustained asset recovery, the Fed would need to start cutting rates. While this will likely happen at some point next year, it is not likely near term." - JPM
— Sam Ro ?? (@SamRo) November 21, 2022
Altcoins get hammered
The fate of Bitcoin once again dictated the direction of the altcoin market, with the vast majority of tokens trading in the red for the day as traders exited the market in anticipation of further declines.
Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360
Several projects did however manage to post decent gains on the day, including a 28.37% increase for Nest Protocol (NEST), an 18.19% gain for Mdex (MDX), and an 8.74% increase for iExec RLC (RLC).
The traditional markets, likewise, fell under pressure on Monday with the S&P, Dow and Nasdaq all closing in the red, down 0.39%, 0.13%, and 1.09%, respectively.
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $789 billion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 38.5%.
