Cryptocurrencies: BTC dips below $29,000; ETH and DOGE retreat

Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) and Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) were trading lower when last consulted and the global cryptocurrency market capitalization was down 1.9% to $1.2 trillion.

What has happened to cryptocurrencies?

The downturn seen in the cryptocurrency market was a reflection of the fall suffered by stocks due to the bearish results. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed down 0.6% and 0.8%, respectively, on Thursday. Stock futures were trading unchanged when last consulted.

Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, said Bitcoin lost the $29,000 level on Thursday as “traders process the news that Coinbase could end up leaving the U.S. market if it doesn’t get regulatory clarity or if they don’t like upcoming regulatory decisions.”

“If Coinbase leaves the U.S. market, many U.S. traders will leave because they probably won’t feel safe trading on decentralized exchanges, which means the global cryptocurrency market will shrink significantly.”

“Bitcoin will struggle until we get regulatory clarity, which means prices look set to fall,” Moya wrote in a note accessed by Benzinga.

Cryptocurrency trader Michaël van de Poppe noted that the “next important level for Bitcoin is $28,500 after failing to “break through” $29,300.”

Justin Bennett said he continues to advocate for Ethereum shorts. The cryptocurrency trader questioned the thesis about an altcoin season in a tweet on Thursday.

On-chain data firm Glassnode pointed to the net unrealized gain/loss indicator, which is the difference between relative unrealized gains and relative unrealized losses.

It said NUPL’s current value of 0.36 means the market is at a “very neutral level,” with 55.8% of days posting a higher reading and 44.2% posting a lower reading.

“It is consistent with past cycles where a transition between bear and bull markets has taken place. It also suggests that the market is neither deeply discounted (as if it were at $16,000), nor heavily overvalued (as at the +$60,000 peak),” Glassnode explained.

Market intelligence platform Santiment said a pair of Ethereum addresses moved 150,000 ETH (worth $297 million) after holding the cryptocurrencies since late 2018.

The platform said the whales “have helped create one of the largest inactive circulation spikes in the past year.”

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