Bitcoin slipped back below $7,000 on Thursday amid thinner than usual trading volumes. | Image: shutterstock.com
- Bitcoin price tumbles 4% to $6,900 on Thursday, the lowest since mid-December.
- Bitcoin is slowly bleeding while traditional assets like stocks and commodities continue to rise.
- Bitcoin trade volumes plummet at the start of 2020 as market participants remain on the sidelines.
The price of bitcoin tumbled to fresh multi-week lows on Thursday, as the largest cryptocurrency continued to trade independently of broader market forces. The fresh dump came as central-bank liquidity fueled strong rallies in stocks, gold and the U.S. dollar.
Bitcoin (BTC/USD) Nosedives
Bitcoin’s price touched an intraday low of $6,900 on Bistamp, the lowest in over two weeks. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap was last seen hovering near $6,950, down 3.2% on the day.
After losing the $7,000 handle, bitcoin falls to its lowest level since Dec. 18. | Chart: TradingView
A lack of momentum has kept bitcoin subdued to the $7,000-$7,500 trading range for the better part of five weeks. The largest cryptocurrency has pierced $7,600 only twice over that stretch; first on Nov. 30 and then again on Dec. 23. Each time, the rally quickly fizzled and the bears took over.
At current values, bitcoin has a total market cap of $126.6 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. It represents 68.1% of the overall cryptocurrency market.
Real turnover in the bitcoin spot market plunged to around $457 million, according to Bitwise tracking data. Typically, daily trade volumes need to exceed $1 billion for there to be any sustained price appreciation.
Bitcoin Halving Correctly Priced In: Analyst
A popular crypto trader by the name of PlanB took to Twitter on Wednesday to share his evolving view of the bitcoin halving. Based on his tweet, bitcoin’s upcoming halving event has been priced into the market, which means traders should temper their expectations about a possible price surge once the block reward is halved.
PlanB says the BTC halving is priced in correctly because few people know or understand the stock-to-flow (S2F) model. The trader also updated the model to arrive at a much lower 2020-halving prediction price ($50,000 instead of $100,000).
PlanB shares his view of bitcoin post-halving. | Image: Twitter
Originally used to evaluate precious metals, S2F has been adopted by crypto traders to forecast bitcoin’s future price based on its production rate. (It’s calculated by dividing the total supply of BTCs by the amount that is produced each year.) The higher the S2F ratio, the higher the bitcoin price.
Bitcoin’s stock-to-flow model assumes an exponential price surge over the next five years. | Chart: digitalik.net
Other measures of bitcoin’s underlying fundamentals show a thriving network that is growing stronger and more secure by the month. Hash rate, which measures the amount of computing power devoted to bitcoin, grew steadily throughout 2019. At last check, the Bitcoin network’s hash rate stood at 119353,780 TH/s, according to data from Blockchain.com.
Bitcoin remains one of the only non-correlated assets available to investors. A lack of correlation hasn’t benefited bitcoin recently, as stocks, commodities and even the dollar rose in value. All three major asset classes appreciated on Thursday, with stocks hitting fresh records, gold jumping to three-month highs and the dollar gaining nearly half a percent against its peers.
This article was edited by Josiah Wilmoth.
Last modified: January 3, 2020 5:15 AM UTC
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