Bitcoin Stopped At $19,600 While Altcoins Fail to Break Out (Market Watch)
Bitcoin dipped by more than $500 after failing to break above $19,600 a few hours ago. Most altcoins mimicked its moves, with Ethereum taking an unsuccessful swing at $600 before retracing to $580.
Bitcoin Failed At $19,550
After last week’s price drops, where BTC bottomed at $17,500, the cryptocurrency went on a tear and recovered its losses. During the weekend, bitcoin broke above $18,000 and $19,000.
The bulls kept the momentum going in the past 24 hours as well. They drove the primary digital asset to its highest level since early December – $19,550 as it failed to surge above $19,600.
However, bitcoin couldn’t continue north, and the following rejection dumped the asset to $19,100 in minutes. Despite bouncing off, BTC still trades beneath $19,200.
The technical indicators suggest that bitcoin needs to decisively overcome the first resistance at $19,400 before potentially reaching the next one at $19,920. From that point forward, the asset could find itself in the uncharted territory above $20,000.
On the other hand, $18,800, $18,500, and $18,300 are the support lines in case BTC’s retracement continues.
Relatively Steady Altcoins
The alternative coins also had a volatile past several days. They copied bitcoin with massive price drops and fast recovery sessions during the weekend.
In the past 24 hours, Ethereum initiated an impressive leg up that drove ETH to just shy $600. However, the second-largest digital asset failed to overcome the psychological line and dropped to about $580.
Ripple continued its struggles since the Spark (FLR) airdrop snapshot on Saturday. Despite briefly spiking above $0,50, XRP has retraced and currently sits at $0.49.
Binance Coin and Cardano have gained the most from the top 10. BNB (3.3%) has neared $30, while ADA’s 2.5% increase has taken it to $0.156.
Chainlink and Polkadot have dropped by approximately 1% each to $12.6 and $4.9, respectively.
Lower- and mid-cap altcoins have also displayed unusual stagnation on a 24-hour scale. Decentraland has added the most value – 4.5%. Band Protocol (4%), Algorand (4%), and Compound (3.8%) are next.
In contrast, Status has lost the most (-3%), followed by Verge (-2.8%), and Filecoin (-2.7%).
