Sudden bearish sentiment takes hold as BTC price action returns to an area not seen since late July.
Bitcoin (BTC) fell rapidly on Aug. 19 as the culmination of a week’s sideways action ended in disappointment for bulls.
BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView
New lows “just a matter of time
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it dropped 6.2% in a single hourly candle.
Reacting, traders hoped that a rebound could allow for consolidation higher than current spot price levels, which were under $22,000 at the time of writing.
“Well, hopefully that was liquidity seeking, otherwise it’s over,” a gloomy Crypto Chase told Twitter followers.
Fellow account Il Capo of Crypto, who had long forecast a return to lower levels, was resigned to new lows being “just a matter of time.”
Consolidation under $22,500, he warned in his latest update, would be “very bearish.”
Second option playing out. Any test of 23500 as resistance is a good sell opportunity.
Consolidation below 22500 (clean break + use the level as resistance) would be very bearish = 21k or lower
New lows are just a matter of time. https://t.co/MzxrDCZuiZ pic.twitter.com/I5PatYduNW
— il Capo Of Crypto (@CryptoCapo_) August 19, 2022
Prior to the drop, meanwhile, analyst Venturefounder said that any price below $23,000 would be a “decent price to buy in the long term,” adding that it was unlikely that Bitcoin had exited its bear market so far.
Relative strength index (RSI) being still near all-time lows spoke to the extent to which BTC/USD was oversold, he argued.
There were nonetheless signs of buying emerging below key bear market support levels including the 200-week moving average and key whale entry levels.
BTC/USD 1-week candle chart (Bitstamp) with 200-week moving average. Source: TradingView
According to data from on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant, exchange outflows for the first few hours of Aug. 19 already totaled 21,500 BTC.
Bitcoin exchange outflows chart. Source: CryptoQuant
Ether retraces August gains
On altcoins, the knock-on impact of Bitcoin’s return to three-week lows was predictably keenly felt.
Related: Options data shows Bitcoin’s short-term uptrend is at risk if BTC falls below $23K
Ether (ETH), the largest altcoin by market cap, was down 5.2% on the day at the time of writing, trading near $1,750.
ETH/USD 1-day candle chart (Binance). Source: TradingView
Elsewhere, other major tokens lost in excess of 11%, with Dogecoin (DOGE) the worst performer in the top ten, down 13.6%.
“Bear bias now unless $1790 is reclaimed/flipped to support,” Crypto Chase added about ETH in part of a separate tweet.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
