Bitcoin price in freefall, plunges below $28,000 as traders flee financial markets

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(Kitco News) – Cryptocurrency prices were down in trading on Monday as JPMorgan’s announced takeover of First Republic Bank led to volatility across all financial markets and an increase in investor concerns about the state of the global financial system.

Shares started the day on solid footing, with the major indexes looking green in the early trading hours before reversing course and heading lower against the market. When all was said and done, the S&P, Dow and Nasdaq ended Monday in the red, down 0.04%, 0.14% and 0.11% respectively.

Data provided by TradingView shows that the downward pressure on Bitcoin (BTC) began late on Sunday and increased in the early hours of Monday as Bears broke below the $29,000 support and are now looking to break the back of the $28,000 support.

BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

The increase in pressure late Sunday led to May Bitcoin futures prices trending weaker in early US trading on Monday, according to Kitco senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff, who called the price action “choppy and sideways.”

“The bulls and bears are on a neutral overall technical playing field in the near term,” Wyckoff said. “The direction that prices move above or below the resistance and support lines seen on the chart is likely to be the direction of the next sustained trending price move.”

May Bitcoin Futures 1-Day Chart. Source: Jim Wyckoff

BTC’s price action has largely played out as predicted last week by analysts at Eight Global, who noted the possibility of an ABC correction in Bitcoin that could see the top crypto potentially fall to a low of $25,300.

“The bottom of the A wave has apparently come in at around 27.2k, from where we got the B wave, and apparently peaked at around 30k,” the analyst wrote. “This brings my conservative target for wave C to 25.3k, after which I expect some consolidation through the summer before the market chooses a direction.”

BTC/USD 1-Day Chart. Source: Eight Global

Barring any significant Black Swan event, Eight Global suggested that BTC could potentially rise towards $38,000 later in the year, but said that “is a lot of speculation at this point.”

“The US and EU economies are still headed for a recession which I believe will be reflected in stock market performance later this year,” Eight Global wrote. “The question that begs to be answered is whether crypto, especially BTC, can perform to the upside as equity markets enter another risk-off phase, especially with restrictions on exit and entry in the US, I doubt it, but depending of how charts are developed, my opinion may change.”

Bloodbath for the altcoin market

Radicle (RAD) and UMA (UMA) were the only symbols in the top 200 to register gains on the day, rising 13.8% and 7.75% respectively, while the rest of the field plunged deep into the red.

Daily performance in the cryptocurrency market. Source: Coin360

NFT marketplace Blur was the hardest hit, with the price of BLUR down 13.34% on the day, followed by a 12.23% loss for Internet Computer (ICP) and a 9.32% loss for MX Token (MX).

The total cryptocurrency market cap is now at $1.15 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 46.5%.