After 36 hours since the drop, Bitcoin prices fall back below the psychological threshold of $12,000; in all likelihood, the cause is to be attributed to short-term speculative profit-taking as a result of a movement that, in less than a month, from the lows of mid-July, recorded a rise of almost 40%.
Altcoins are also experiencing a slowdown after the strong rises of the last few days. Scrolling the list of the most capitalized, it is necessary to go down to the 33rd position, occupied by Compound (COMP) with a +2.4%, to find the first green sign.
The longest setback today is TRON (TRX), -14% from yesterday’s levels. After touching $0.033 – the highest level since July 2019 – profit taking prevailed by rejecting prices at 0.026.
In the ranking of the worst of the day, there is Chainlink (LINK), -10%, which leaves 5th place in the ranking to Bitcoin Cash (BCH) despite a drop of -6% from yesterday morning’s levels.
Iota (MIOTA) is the other big double-digit drop. From the highs on August 15th, with prices back above $0.44 after more than a year, the profit-taking caused prices to plummet by 20% in less than four days.
After hitting the highest peak in the last 27 months – $380 billion – the generalized weakness brings the total market cap just below $370 billion.
Bitcoin’s market share has stopped at 59%, while Ethereum (12.6%) and Ripple (3.6%) maintain the levels of recent days.
The volumes remain strong with total trading volumes above $190 billion in the last 24 hours.
DeFi: values slightly down
The total value locked on DeFi is slightly down from $6.3 billion yesterday to $6.2 billion. This is due to the drop in the price of ETH which, with about 4.5 million units locked, occupies 30% of the entire supply on decentralized protocols.
Yearn.finance (YFI) continues to climb the ranking of the most used projects. The token launched in mid-July, ranking among the most original projects of the last few weeks, in one-month registers a gain of more than 1500%.
The climb in the last few hours was remarkable and for a few minutes, the prices went up to 12 thousand dollars, above the current price of Bitcoin. The DeFi frenzy continues, which attracts both the attention of new investors and speculation.
Profit-taking makes Bitcoin (BTC) fall
The race has ended in the last two days and in a few hours has broken down resistance between 12,100 and 12,350 dollars.
The threshold of 12,500 dollars has seen profit-taking prevail and the strength of the covers of the Call options positioned just above this level. The descent, at the moment, stops in the $11,800 area, a level that in the first half of August has seen prices fluctuate throughout the period.
It will be important to observe the reaction of operators in the next few hours to validate the tightness of the former resistance, which since the end of July has acted as a cap at every bullish attack. The elevations of the last few days have increased the positions to protect the resistance, highlighting how professional operators expect a slowdown in the climb.
In these hours, the bullish trendline that combines the lows of mid-July and mid-August is being tested, indicating a first sign of a slowdown in the short term. In the medium term, however, the trend remains upward. Only a descent below $10,000 can trigger the first alarms.
Ethereum (ETH)
Resistance has been felt in the $443 area. The break lasted only a few minutes and the prices were only one step away from $450.
It’s a level where the profit-taking prevailed, rejecting the quotations at a handful of points above $400, a level indicated in yesterday’s piece as the first level of support.
Both technical and psychological support defences have begun in this area. A possible return and break down will open spaces for descents down to area 355, a level to defend so as not to jeopardize the uptrend built in the last month.