Bitcoin, Ethereum Prices Drop 8% as Crypto Bulls Retreat for Now

The crypto market bears are back today, as Bitcoin and Ethereum—the market’s leading coins—are both experiencing significant losses.

Bitcoin today shed nearly $2,000 from its price, dropping as low as $33,500, in a matter of hours. Meanwhile, Ethereum sank by roughly $1,000 after hitting a fresh all-time high above $1,400 yesterday. Both BTC and ETH are down around 8% on the day.

After peaking earlier this month at above $40,000 per coin, Bitcoin suffered a massive correction—the worst one in its short history, measured in USD. It fell over $11,000 (a loss of nearly 30%) in three days.

Crypto traders and investors remained optimistic, however, considering the coin is still well above its 2017 all-time high, and the recent rise in institutional investment in Bitcoin could mean its price could rise further still.

MicroStrategy got the institutional buying party started with over 70,470 Bitcoin purchased in 2020. (That stash is now worth more than $2 billion.) Grayscale, meanwhile, now manages over $20 billion in Bitcoin after another record purchase on its first day of operations after a brief pause in the action. Jack Dorsey’s payments firm Square also jumped in with a $50 million investment. And several other companies and investment firms have followed since.

And, unless something drastic happens, it’s unlikely that any of these firms will be unloading that Bitcoin anytime soon.

In terms of price performance, Bitcoin has started to consolidate after the crash, with peaks and valleys that have become less intense as the days go by. Today, that fight between the bears and bulls appears to have been won by the bears, at least in the very near term.

That $35,000 price point is key, according to some market observers, such as Guggenheim Partners CIO Scott Minerd. And that’s exactly where Bitcoin is hovering around right now.

Meanwhile, Ethereum appears to be following Bitcoin, more or less. The world’s largest altcoin has dropped 7% from its recently registered all-time high. But in terms of weekly performance, it is doing quite well, with a 22.5% increase.

For those of you into trading metrics, you may be interested to know that Bitcoin’s relative strength index (RSI), an indicator of the balance between buyers and sellers in a market, is now back to what analysts consider normal levels. What this means is that all the Bitcoin that was “overbought” has now been sold, according to the metric.

So, while market corrections can be painful for some, this—in theory—is healthier for the market.

Still, Bitcoin bulls would probably prefer that number keep going up. If only Elon Musk would tweet about it, eh holders?