(Kitco News) – Crypto prices were hammered in trading on Friday amid rising concerns that Silvergate Bank, the former banking partner for many of the crypto industry’s biggest names, is “less than well capitalized” and could become the next major domino to fall in the crypto ecosystem.
The traditional markets, on the other hand, were firing on all cylinders as stocks surged higher at the sight of a slight retreat in the 10-year Treasury note and the latest services data that showed economic activity expanded in February. The S&P, Dow and Nasdaq all closed the week in the green, up 1.61%, 1.17%, and 1.97%, respectively.
Data from TradingView shows that Bitcoin (BTC) bears launched their assault on bulls in the early morning hours on Friday, pummeling the top crypto to a daily low of $22,252 and keeping the pressure applied throughout the afternoon, pinning BTC below $22,500.
BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The Friday morning smackdown resulted in March Bitcoin futures prices hitting “a three-week low in early U.S. trading,” according to Kitco senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff, who added that “Bulls have lost their slight overall near-term technical advantage as a price uptrend on the daily chart has been negated.”
“Prices are now in a fledgling downtrend and bears have some momentum,” Wyckoff warned.
Crypto market psychology
Insight into the price level that bears are now watching closely was provided by market analyst Crypto Tony, who posted the following tweet highlighting the support/resistance level at $22,300 as one to keep an eye on.
$22,300 is the level this weekend for the bears. Flip that into resistance and we are continuing the short fiasco 👇 pic.twitter.com/ooo4RrphTP
— Crypto Tony (@CryptoTony__) March 3, 2023
A more positive take on a similar scenario was provided by crypto investor Pentoshi, who posted the following chart outlining a continuation of the current dip followed by price recovery.
I’d love to see this
and would be wanting to play it for a bounce pic.twitter.com/oQLzyecJyy
— Pentoshi 🐧 (@Pentosh1) March 3, 2023
And Eight Global founder Michaël van de Poppe provided the following insight as to why trading in the crypto market can be a tricky proposition, highlighting the need to develop a trading plan and stick to it.
People were so eager to buy into #Crypto two weeks ago.
People are now so eager to sell their #Crypto.
Reverse that psychology.
— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) March 3, 2023
A sea of red in the altcoin market
Friday was a bloodbath in the altcoin market, and while a handful of tokens managed to see slight gains, the fact that more than 20 tokens in the top 200 recorded double-digit losses speaks volumes about the experience of crypto traders on Friday.
Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360
SingularityNET (AGIX) suffered the biggest loss of the day, down 14.04% and trading at $0.4569, while BinaryX (BNX) recorded a decline of 14.01% and dYdX (DYDX) fell by 13.5%.
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1.024 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 42.1%.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
