Bitcoin was having a perfectly positive 2020, even drawing comparisons to physical gold and safe-haven assets before the coronavirus hit markets around the world. Today, as President Trump announced travel restrictions for European countries, followed by Saudia Arabia, both, stock markets and Bitcoin took a nosedive.
The leading digital currency was trading around $10,000 by mid-February before it started sliding, but today, March 12, 2020, Bitcoin is witnessing a $2,000+ candle, bringing it down from around $7,800 to $5,800.
While coronavirus can be blamed for this drastic slide, many are also pointing towards PlusToken selling its stash of ill-gotten BTC and ETH believed to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Given how Bitcoin markets are relatively low-volume, manipulation with large sell orders is very much possible.
Concerns are also cropping up around Bitcoin’s hashrate, which has continued to drop since March 8, 2020, and is currently at 97,919,187 TH/s, compared to yesterday’s 108,616,241 TH/s.
From a technical perspective, Bitcoin is currently trading in the support zone between $5,500 and $6,000 and is significantly oversold according to the RSI indicator. Moving forward, a bounce-back can be expected but $6,500 and $7,000 have become resistance levels to be crossed.
According to the recent crypto market activity, Bitcoin is considered a risky asset and is not being favored by investors during the current crises as they flee towards cash and gold. What remains to be seen is how this situation develops over the next few months as the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak becomes clearer and the Bitcoin reward halving draws closer.
