Crypto markets are a sea of red today, though the scale of losses has been limited. Bitcoin prices have continued to ebb, hitting $327.53, just barely surpassing yesterday's lows.
All other top-ranked coins are off by an average of about 2%. Currently, only Ripple is trading higher over the past 24h, by 0.08%. It has not been unusual for Bitcoin 2.0 currencies to remain immune during broad-based sell-offs.
Litecoin's losses have been tempered, losing but 0.5%, and it has in fact advanced markedly against bitcoin to over 0.0112. Such has been the trend when the scale of loss is relatively small, albeit broad-based: Litecoin trades on its own merits. In contrast, it has historically amplified BTC's movements during super-hyped rallies and panic stricken sell-offs.
While bitcoin's losses haven't been particularly harsh- it is off by no more than 3% during the past 24h- it remains stuck in a cycle of decline started 10 days ago.
Weekends have not been particularly kind to Bitcoin of late, and traders ought to tread carefully this time around. As assessed one week ago, bitcoin prices were standing on highly unstable ground and a decline into the low 300's was likely. There exists no support at current levels. We are seeing a recurring cycle of the following: a sharp sell-off, accompanied by the occasional flash crash, followed by a retracement in the neighborhood of 50%, a 7-10 day period of flat trade (the peak and plateau), followed by a string of small losses bringing BTC to within striking distance of its previous low and then a sharp sell-off into new territory.
This pattern is likely to continue until a critical point of reversal is reached, reinforced with a bottoming process indicating a consensus that the lower end of "fair value" has been reached.
