The last few hours on the crypto trading floor has been quite dreary for bitcoin (BTC) based on latest price watch early Tuesday, shedding its recent gains and might slip deeper into the quicksand.
The leading digital asset in terms of market value disrupted a trendline that represented the currency's recent 8-week bull ascent with a trajectory just under the $11,018 threshold at around 06:40 UTC and went on to notch a low of $9,896 on Bitstamp, latest reports show.
Notably, in just under a month, since the first week of July, bitcoin has retreated from over $13,000 to under $10,000, which many analysts consider as a major psychological phase for the virtual currency.
Bear market pressure
The heavily-traded electronic asset has been in the doldrums to get back into a bullish momentum that lifted it for most of the year. Since the last quarter of December 2018 when BTC plummeted, it has generally been ascending until it succumbed to bear market resistance at $13,800, resulting in a sudden crash and lost some of its appeals.
In contrast, with the pullback from Sunday's peak of $11,140 to sub-$10,000 levels, the crypto has recorded yet another bearish lower-high swing - the most fundamental of all bearish technical movements on its daily chart.
As a result, the bears are seen to muscle their way into the short term. In fact, bitcoin could drop all the way back to its July 17 low of $9,095, putting to naught its low-volume bounce from that point to $11,120 it enjoyed in four days to mid-July.
Technical factors
While the most popular digital asset made a solid recovery since then, it has struggled to rise above the $11,000 mark, falling short in testing the resistance level in the last few days.
According to market analyst Josh Rager, apart from a few short tightening on margin trading platforms like BitFinex and BitMex, BTC's price behavior during the last two weeks has mostly been sparked by technical factors.
"This is not a great sign for bulls who want to see price break back up in neutral territory... continue to watch this area for a break $10,189 that will lead back down to 4-digit BTC," Rager said.
Meanwhile, many crypto players are extremely confident on Bitcoin in the long-term, expecting the valued virtual asset to ultimately hit $100,000 to as much as a million per BTC. But illogical enthusiasm also pervades throughout the crypto ecosystem, and these people often let their imagination dictate the normal flow of their judgment.
