Ethereum below $19,000 and Bitcoin Falls Below $20,000

In the current bear market, Bitcoin has dropped to a new low.

According to reports, Bitcoin fell below $20,000 on Saturday morning, a significant support level for the top cryptocurrency by market cap. At the time of publication, Bitcoin was trading at roughly $19,460, down more than 6% on the day.

Although the $20,000 mark is primarily symbolic, analysts believe that a dip below it might precipitate a wave of ‘forced liquidations,’ in which large-scale crypto investors are compelled to close positions on BTC futures instruments due to a lack of collateral. Such actions would very certainly drive the price of Bitcoin substantially lower, resulting in more liquidations.

At the time of publication, Ethereum was trading at roughly $1,020, a fraction of a cent over the $1,000 support level.

The entire market capitalisation of all cryptocurrencies is currently $853 billion, down more than 5% in the last 24 hours.

According to Arthur Hayes, the former CEO of BitMEX, the price levels of $20,000 and $1,000 for BTC and ETH, respectively, would spark “huge sell pressure” if they were breached.

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If these levels break, $20k $BTC & $1k $ETH, we can expect massive sell pressure in the spot markets as dealers hedge themselves. We can also expect that there will be some otc dealers and that will be unable to hedge properly and might go belly up.

— Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) June 14, 2022

Early last month, crypto markets plummeted as major coins dropped in lockstep with the stock market. Terra’s stablecoin UST and native token LUNA both crumbled within a week, wiping over $40 billion in value.

Since then, cryptocurrencies have been steadily declining with tech stocks, a decline aided by investors withdrawing millions of dollars into decentralised finance over fears of a deteriorating bear market.

Celsius suspended all user withdrawals on Sunday, citing worries that the firm would not have enough funds to support a rush on the platform caused by the depegging of cryptocurrency stETH from ETH.

It’s uncertain when BTC, ETH, and the broader crypto market will hit the metaphorical bottom as the cascading repercussions of each fresh crypto market collapse continue to play out.