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(Kitco News) - The market-wide pullback many had been expecting for cryptocurrencies finally came to fruition on Wednesday as prices were down across the board, with Bitcoin (BTC) falling back below $30,000 while Ether (ETH) price trades below the $2,000 support/resistance zone.
Stocks traded flat for the most part as persistent inflation continues to cause hesitation from investors who are wary to enter the market ahead of any additional interest rate hikes. At the market close, the S&P and Nasdaq were essentially unchanged for the day while the Dow finished down 0.23%.
Data provided by TradingView shows that the selloff for Bitcoin began with the opening candle on Wednesday, with the top crypto plunging 4.5% over the course of the trading day, hitting a low of $29,111 before bulls managed to bid it back above support at $29,300.
BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The early selloff in spot BTC resulted in April Bitcoin futures prices trading “solidly lower” according to Kitco senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff.
“Bulls are now fading a bit after prices hit a contract high Sunday,” Wyckoff said. “A price uptrend on the daily bar chart remains in place but the bulls need to show fresh power soon to keep it alive and to keep their firm overall near-term technical advantage.”
In the latest Trade Letter from Eight Global, the firm’s analysts noted that on the weekly BTC chart, “a reclaim of the mega range” has occurred. “This is a very positive sign, as based on the range trading rules, after a reclaim of the range low you should expect a price move towards range EQ, meaning we will move towards ~$48k.”
BTC/USD 1-week chart. Source: Eight Global
“There is of course much more involved than just the range, as we are dealing with macroeconomic uncertainty as mentioned earlier,” the analysts wrote. “However, this range is a nice starting point, and should the price fall back below the range (and close) this would be a bearish sign, and thus a possible invalidation for your longs.”
Additional insight into the price levels to keep an eye on moving forward was provided by Eight Global founder Michaël van de Poppe following the market pullback on Wednesday, with Poppe warning about a retest of support at $29,000 if tomorrow’s unemployment data has any surprises.
Crucial levels for #Bitcoin remain intact.
— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) April 19, 2023
Breaking $29,300-29,400 can fuel upwards continuation. Tonight's $TSLA earnings or Unemployment tomorrow can make a difference.
If not, then sweep at $29,000 is next. pic.twitter.com/q6vzfs9vbi
A red day for altcoins
Altcoins experienced a pan sell-off in response to the pullback for Bitcoin, with all but two tokens in the top 200 – Celer Network (CELR) and Multichain (MULTI) – seeing red for the day.
Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360
Several tokens that recently led the altcoin market were some of the hardest-hit projects, with Conflux (CFX), Cartesi (CTSI) and SPACE ID all recording losses of approximately 12.2%.
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1.22 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 46.2%.
