First Mover Asia: Bitcoin falls below $49k as trading volume weakens, altcoins see red

Bitcoin’s drop-off coincides with a strengthening U.S. dollar; ether declines.

Good morning. Here’s what’s happening this morning:

Market moves: Bitcoin fell as U.S. stocks sagged and the U.S. dollar strengthened.

Technician’s take: Buying activity remains weak, which reduces the chance of a significant price rise into January.

Prices

Bitcoin (BTC): $48,123 -4.7%

Ether (ETH): $4,183 -5.3%

Markets

S&P 500: $4,667 -0.7%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: $35,754 -0.0001%

Nasdaq: $15,517 -1.7%

Gold: $1,775 -0.4%

Market moves

Bitcoin fell toward $48,000 on Thursday, sliding nearly 5% after hovering over $50,000 for much of the previous two days.

Trading volume of the No.1 cryptocurrency by market capitalization across major centralized exchanges, however, continued to drop.

Credit: CoinDesk/CryptoCompare

The majority of the crypto market was also in red: Ether was down by more than 5% to around $4,000. The bearish market performance occurred as U.S. stocks fell and the dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback’s value against major fiat currencies, rose by 0.28%.

As CoinDesk reported, a strengthened U.S. dollar brings downside pressure on bitcoin’s prices.

“The long-term bull case remains for bitcoin, but everything in the short-term seems bearish,” Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda, said in an email. “Bitcoin will need to overcome growing expectations for a stronger dollar, an extended altcoin season and short-term bearishness for risk assets as Omicron derails reopening momentum.”

Technician’s take

Bitcoin's four-hour price chart shows support/resistance levels with RSI in second panel (Damanick Dantes/CoinDesk, TradingView)

Bitcoin (BTC) continued to struggle below the $50,000 resistance level.

The short-term downtrend over the past month remains in effect, which could limit further upside beyond $50,000-$60,000.

The cryptocurrency is down about 4% over the past 24 hours, although support around the 200-day moving average (currently at $46,500) could stabilize the current pullback.

BTC buying activity remains weak despite several oversold signals on the charts. That reduces the chance of a significant price increase heading into January, especially given the loss of upside momentum on the weekly and monthly charts.

Important events

3 p.m. HKT/SGT (7 a.m. UTC): U.K. trade balance (Oct.)

3 p.m. HKT/SGT (7 a.m. UTC): U.K. industrial production (Oct. YoY/MoM)

3 p.m. HKT/SGT (7 a.m. UTC): Germany consumer price index (Nov. YoY/MoM)

9:30 p.m. HKT/SGT (1:30 p.m. UTC): U.S. consumer price index (Nov. YoY/MoM)