Needless to say, this week has been excruciatingly difficult for cryptocurrency investors. On Monday, the bitcoin price was hovering above $8,200. At time of writing, the benchmark blockchain token is just under $7,000, having lost nearly 15% of market value.
It’s the same story repeated throughout virtually all of the altcoins. For instance, the once-vaunted Ethereum, which stood robustly at $900 to $1,000 while other cryptocurrency assets tanked, now is humbled to a ridiculously low $396. Other “penny altcoins” that gained sudden fame last year, such as Ripple, NEM, and Stellar Lumens, are now approaching their pre-bubble valuations.
All in all, the total market capitalization for the “blockchain markets” stands at a little more than $263 billion. It wasn’t long ago that the global market cap was on the verge of $900 billion, and therefore, on the cusp of breaking $1 trillion, something that Apple has been gunning for.
That in and of itself raises suspicion of big players leveraging their financial and political clout to drag cryptocurrency assets in the mud. But in my opinion, the biggest eyebrow-raiser is the news that negatively impacted the bitcoin price in recent days; as in, there are none.
While the bitcoin price continued to hit low after low, I scoured every morning for an explanation. Was a significant country cracking down on cryptocurrency markets? Was there another hack among the altcoins? Did the Securities and Exchange Commission raise another fuss about initial coin offerings (ICOs)?
No. Surprisingly, the news cycle was devoid about fundamental explanations. Indeed, I didn’t see any speculative explanations as to why the bitcoin price was freefalling. What I did see were reports that blockchain tokens were dropping like flies – thanks, Sherlock! – and especially, that the bitcoin price was approaching the “death cross.”
Now, the death cross is a somewhat ridiculous name to describe a situation where a publicly-traded asset’s shorter-term moving average price falls below its longer-term average; typically, this involves the 50 day moving average dipping below the 200 day moving average.
I think the death cross is significant for mainstream benchmarks, such as the Dow Jones. That’s because there’s a lack of strong, upside movement, which makes it difficult to recover from sharp losses. But with the bitcoin price, volatility to the downside and up is the name of the game.
Yet the death cross is the only explanation I could find. When you think about it, this isn’t really news. Therefore, my suspicions are further raised. Cryptocurrency assets are falling simply for the fact that they’re falling.
My only contribution is to suggest that powerful organizations are spreading fear and panic so that they can move in at discounted prices, perhaps in a bid to gain greater control of the blockchain revolution.