Bitcoin Price Fights to Hold $10K Support While Altcoins See Drops

Saturday, Aug. 24 — Crypto markets continued to see red as Bitcoin (BTC) dipped below the $10,000 price mark several times within 12 hours.

Only two out of the top 20 coins by market cap saw gains in the 24 hours leading up to publication: Cardano (ADA) and NEO (NEO), which are up 1.3% and 2.6% respectively.

Market visualization | Source: Coin360

BTC fights to hold $10K support

Bitcoin is trading at $10,066 at publishing time, down 3.3% on the day. The biggest cryptocurrency has dropped below the $10,000 threshold three times over the past 12 hours and dropped below Friday’s low of $10,078, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Meanwhile, losses over the past seven days amounted to 1.3% at the time of publication.

Bitcoin 24-hour price chart | Source: Coin360

Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is down 2.3% and trading at nearly $190 at publishing time. The top altcoin is up by roughly 2.9% over the past seven days.

Ether 7-day price chart | Source: Coin360

XRP, the third cryptocurrency by market cap, tumbled 2.2% to $0.269 at the time of publication. As with Ether, XRP is still up — 2.1% over the past week.

XRP 7-day price chart | Source: Coin360

Total market capitalization slipped from $270 billion at the beginning of the day to $263 billion at publishing time. Daily trade volume also tumbled from $52 billion to $49 billion.

Privacy-focused altcoin Monero (XMR) is seeing the biggest losses among the top 20 coins by market capitalization — down nearly 5% over the past 24 hours.

Mark Carney weighs in

Yesterday, the Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney said that a digital currency such as Facebook’s not-yet-launched cryptocurrency Libra could replace the United States dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Anthony Pompliano, founder of crypto investment firm Morgan Creek Digital Assets, pointed out that the supportive stance to Libra from the British regulator and central bank indicates the rapid adoption of crypto. He wrote on Twitter:

“It only took 10 years for central bankers to go from unaware of digital currencies to calling for one as the global reserve currency. This is moving much faster than almost anyone expected.”

Commenting on Carney’s recent call for a global monetary system to replace the U.S. dollar, crypto and blockchain expert Joseph Young noted that it is a “very interesting time for bitcoin and gold” as the currency war is intensifying alongside rising geopolitical risks. 

Young added that while Bitcoin’s short-term price trend seems heading downward, there is a chance that more investors will take a better look at alternative stores of value as foreign exchange wars rage on.