Over the past 24 hours, the crypto market has recorded a loss of $18 billion, as major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ether, EOS, and Bitcoin Cash dropped by 4 to 13 percent.
While Bitcoin ended the day with a 4 percent decline in its value, Ether, the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum, plummeted by 13 percent against the US dollar, becoming one of the worst performing major cryptocurrencies alongside NEO.
Tokens recorded the steepest drop in their value on August 11, as most Ethereum-based tokens such as Theta Token, Aion, Pundi X, Aelf, DigixDAO, WanChain, and VeChain recorded a drop of around 14 to 18 percent.
Bitcoin Breaks 50% Dominance
For the first time in 2018, Bitcoin, the most dominant cryptocurrency in the global market, has obtained 50 percent of the market share, securing its year-to-date (YTD) high on the dominance index.
The sudden increase in the dominance index of Bitcoin which coincided with the spike in the volume of Tether have demonstrated that investors have become reluctant towards taking high-risk and high-return trades, mostly due to the lack of confidence in the short-term trend of the market.
Over the past few weeks, tokens have lost over 50 percent of their value against Bitcoin, which has also fallen by more than 20 percent since late July. For instance, EOS, dubbed the “Ethereum Killer,” has dropped 50 percent of its market valuation in the past 30 days, due to the instability and volatility in the market.
In recent months, the volume of BTC and the rest of the crypto market have substantially decreased. In late July, when BTC initiated a promising run to the higher end of $8,000, its volume neared the $6 billion mark.
As of August 11, the volume of BTC remains below $4.4 billion while the volume of Tether (USDT), a stablecoin whose value is hedged to that of the US dollar, has increased to $2.8 billion, more than $1.2 billion higher than the volume of Ethereum.
Since July, traders have discovered that the price trend of small cap tokens generally follow the price trend of XRP and EOS. In the past 24 hours, Ripple and EOS have dropped 11 percent of their value against the US dollar.
Where Does the Market go Next?
Due to the overly strong downtrend of major cryptocurrencies, in order for the cryptocurrency market to engage in a large mid-term bull run, the market would need to bottom out at a lower price range.
Yesterday, on August 10, CCN reported that analysts see BTC testing a major support level at around $5,800.
“If the price movement of BTC in the short-term plays out the same way as February, April, and May, BTC will likely fall below $6,000 in the upcoming days, possibly bottoming out at $5,700 to $5,800, as several analysts suggested,” CCN reported.
However, failing to secure strong momentum in the higher region of $5,000 could lead BTC testing $5,500, which may lead to a further drop for the cryptocurrency market.