Bitcoin, over the last couple of months, has been on a serious decline. The cryptocurrency over the last 24-hours has breached the below $5,000 USD barrier and has fallen further down. At this point, the Bitcoin value has come down to just below 75% of its all-time high of $19,000 USD.

As it happens all the time, along with Bitcoin all the other altcoin markets and other coins in the cryptocurrency market too face and harbour huge losses. Right now Ethereum is below the $150 USD mark which was identified as the currency’s support line. Similarly, Ripple too has taken a few hits in the process.

Usually, when Bitcoin falls and it brings along with it the other cryptocurrencies in the process, the dominance of Bitcoin increases, but this time the market seems to be breaking all the usual moulds of the market as it has managed to drop in dominance too. Bitcoin dominance has dropped two points and is right now at 52.8%.

Reasons For the Fall

The cryptocurrency market has been in a bearish region for quite some time now. Bitcoin over the past year has lost more than 50% of its all-time high and while that is what was expected, the falls have been slightly worse than predicted. But that is the thing about the cryptocurrency market, things and trends cannot be predicted.

There are too many factors and external influences that affect the market. And while there is some level of predictability to it, it is not always on point and can vary by a huge margin.

However, the further decline that Bitcoin and subsequently the other altcoins have experienced, is being attributed to two main events. The first of them being the hash war that the splitting of Bitcoin Cash has sparked in the community.

Bitcoin Cash in its recent network update underwent a split because of conflicting ideologies and proposals. The network update ended up becoming a hardfork in which the blockchain split into two and then went on to become a race between the two blockchains. This was also fueled by the big names of the cryptocurrency market with Roger Ver leading one blockchain and Craig Wright leading the other one.

Roger Ver warned investors that the hashing war could reflect badly on the market especially Bitcoin. But following the hash war, there is a lot of bad blood in the community and has left a bad aftertaste for the market’s valuation.

Another major reason that the market is low right now is that the SEC is conducting a major crackdown on the ICO sector of the cryptocurrency market. They have come down on many ICOs and their companies for not having reached the promised milestones and achievements that they promised at the time of the ICO. They have now been slapped with a fine and a charge for the same. This has stunted the market in some ways, but not as badly as the hash wars because of Bitcoin Cash.  

More To Come

Experts and traders in the market seem very unfrazzled by the new low that Bitcoin has taken over the last twenty-four hours. Even though the final support line identified by most financial bodies in the market was $7,000 USD, the traders and investment experts of the cryptocurrency market are very sure that this is not the worst and there is more to come over the next four to five months.

The reason that the traders have taken this stance is quite technical in nature. They are convinced that this is not the end because based on technical analysis of the market, the market has been on a downward trend since 2017 December when the most of the coins and Bitcoin reached their peaks; setting new all-time highs.

Researchers and market experts have also identified that the cryptocurrency market has been in a decline since December 2017. Probably the most disappointing of the news is that the downward trend is going to last up until the second quarter of 2019.

Recanting Predictions

A lot of cryptocurrency investors and community members came out in 2017 and made predictions of what price the first cryptocurrency of the world will finish the next year. The most popular ones among those were the ones made by the likes of John McAfee.

With the downward trend that has ensued since 2017, the cryptocurrency market has been on a decline and a lot of the people that made predictions have recanted them or changed the time frame. In response to the cryptocurrency decline, John McAfee has changed his time frame from 2018 to 2021. Another major difference in the predictions made right now is that they all lie between $1,500 to $3,000.

Many investment advisors have come out and called out support line at $7,000 USD but as on now, Bitcoin is $2,000 USD under that limit. And everybody in the market and the financial sphere have their eye on the market as it sets up for further losses.

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Ramaa Mohan