Cryptocurrency values dropped on Monday as JPMorgan's announcement to acquire First Republic Bank triggered volatility in financial markets and heightened investor concerns about the global financial system's stability. While stocks began the day strong, with major indices in the green during early trading, they reversed course and closed lower. The S&P, Dow, and Nasdaq all ended Monday down 0.04%, 0.14%, and 0.11%, respectively.
TradingView data reveals that Bitcoin (BTC) started its decline late Sunday, intensifying early Monday as bears broke through the $29,000 support level and now target the $28,000 support. According to Jim Wyckoff, a senior technical analyst at Kitco, the late Sunday pressure caused May Bitcoin futures prices to weaken in early U.S. trading on Monday, describing the price action as "choppy and sideways."
Wyckoff stated, "The bulls and bears are on a neutral overall near-term technical playing field." He added that the direction in which prices move above or below the resistance and support lines on the chart will likely determine the next sustained trending price move.
Last week, Eight Global analysts predicted BTC's price action, suggesting a possible ABC correction in Bitcoin that could see the leading cryptocurrency drop to a low of $25,300. They wrote, "The bottom of the A wave seemingly has come in at around 27.2k, from where we got the B wave, seemingly topping out at around 30k." They projected a conservative target for the C wave at $25.3k, with consolidation expected throughout the summer before the market chooses a direction.
Eight Global also speculated that barring any significant black swan events, BTC could potentially rise to $38,000 later this year. However, they noted that this remains highly speculative. They wrote, "The U.S. and EU economies are still heading towards a recession which, in my opinion, will make itself visible in stock market performance later this year."
Only Radicle (RAD) and UMA (UMA) recorded gains among the top 200 tokens, increasing by 13.8% and 7.75%, respectively. The rest of the market experienced deep losses, with the NFT marketplace Blur's BLUR token down 13.34%, Internet Computer (ICP) falling 12.23%, and MX Token (MX) losing 9.32%. The total cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1.15 trillion, with Bitcoin's dominance rate at 46.5%.
