Bitcoin dips below $50K as Evergrande defaults on US dollar debt

Bitcoin (BTC) kept $50,000 as a focus on Dec. 9 as consolidation on BTC/USD continued to avoid last week’s lows.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

Bitcoin “appears on track”

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed the pair acting within a small range around the $50,000 mark overnight, this yet to become firm support.

“A crucial area to hold is that region we’ve touched already at $42K. The close was above $46-47K and I’d prefer not to lose that at all.”

“Chop, chop, chop it is for Bitcoin,” Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe wrote on the day.

Amid broadly calmer conditions despite macro markets dealing with an unprecedented debt default from China’s Evergrande property giant, analysts thus focused increasingly on longer-term phenomena to gauge Bitcoin price action’s overall health.

“Bitcoin appears on track,” popular Twitter account TechDev summarized Wednesday in an optimistic discussion comparing this year to previous post-halving years 2013 and 2017.

A frequent topic for TechDev, the relationship, conditioned by halving cycles, has survived despite the most recent drawdown from all-time highs totaling 39%.

He further agreed with separate analysis from popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital, who late last week highlighted key Fibonacci levels for Bitcoin to hold and reclaim.

Despite the similarities between cycles, however, commentators have conceded that this time, Bitcoin will likely take longer to reach its cycle peak, leaving December without a classic blow-off top.

Ether takes aim at BTC pair

Altcoins were similarly calm overnight, with the only standout in the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap being Terra’s LUNA token, up 11%.

Ether (ETH) was down by 1.2% at the time of writing to just above $4,300 while maintaining almost four-year highs against BTC.

ETH/BTC 1-month candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

For Rekt Capital, $4,384 was the support level to reclaim in order to fuel a retest of ground nearer all-time highs.