(Kitco News) – Crypto prices tumbled lower on Friday afternoon as rising geopolitical tensions in the Mideast have markets on edge, with investors fleeing to the safety of the U.S. dollar at the expense of risk assets like cryptos and stocks, and even safe-haven plays like gold and US Treasuries.
Friday started on a strong note for gold, which hit a new record high above $2,431 an ounce in the spot market, to the amazement of many analysts. It was the opposite story for stocks and cryptos, which fell under pressure even before the opening bell and continued to slide lower throughout the trading day.
An uptick in aggressive communications between Israel, the U.S., and Iran took center stage in the afternoon, however, leading to a 3.75% plunge in the price of gold back to $2,340, while the stock market slide deepened, and cryptos sold off en masse.
Data provided by TradingView shows that after holding above $70,500 throughout the morning, Bitcoin (BTC) fell under intense pressure in the afternoon, at one point down 8.1% from the Friday high, bottoming out at $65,150 before dip buyers pushed it back above $67,000.
BTC/USD Chart by TradingView
The rapid pan selloff led to mass liquidations in the derivatives market, with data from Coinglass showing that $775.64 million worth of long positions have been liquidated in the past 24 hours, while shorts have lost $90.3 million.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $67,305, a decline of 4.64% on the 24-hour chart. The S&P, Dow, and Nasdaq all finished the day in the red, down 1.46%, 1.24%, and 1.62%, respectively.
No man’s land
While the sudden drop caught many traders off guard, market analyst il Capo of Crypto warned early Friday morning, “The market is looking weak. A 15%-25% shakeout seems likely.”
Several hours later, his prediction came true, as Bitcoin fell by more than 8% while altcoins recorded double-digit losses amid the flight to the U.S. dollar.
Bitcoin “is still in no man’s land,” Capo said in an update in his Telegram group. “We could see a short-term bounce because there were a lot of liquidations on alts, but before making a move, I would wait to see how it reacts at the extremes of the range.
“Eyes still on liquidity below $60k,” Capo said.
While Friday afternoon’s move lower had many saying the bull market is over, market analyst Christopher Inks helped provide a macro perspective by highlighting the pullback in the context of Bitcoin’s increase over the past six months.
THIS is what you’re freaking out about? Really? #Bitcoin $BTC pic.twitter.com/j9Y2ih9y0s
— Christopher Inks (@TXWestCapital) April 12, 2024
And MN Trading founder Michaël van de Poppe said this bull cycle is still early, and what we’ve seen so far from Bitcoin was mainly due to the launch of spot BTC ETFs.
The markets barely have seen any bull cycle.
It’s just been #Bitcoin rallying up due to the ETF, but there’s not much outside of that.
Still early.
— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) April 12, 2024
Crypto trader Emperor posted the following chart to provide a simple explanation of his plan moving forward.
Buy the Dip Zone on the Daily Time Frame.
Posted without any Comment. pic.twitter.com/1lxNWw2Imm
— Emperor👑 (@EmperorBTC) April 12, 2024
No escape for altcoins
Altcoins suffered deep losses in the wake of the afternoon pullback, with only one non-stablecoin token in the top 200 – Ontology (ONT) – posting a positive gain of 3% on the day.
Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360
The vast majority recorded double-digit losses, led by Core (CORE), which fell 29.7%, SATS (1000SATS), which lost 26.6%, and Zeta Chain (ZETA), which declined 26.2%.
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $2.43 trillion, a decline of 7.3% on the 24-hour chart, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 54.3%.
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