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What’s Next for Bitcoin (BTC) Prices? Traders Eye $50K as Billion-Wide Selling Pressure Looms
Bitcoin (BTC) Traders expect prices to drop to $50,000 in the coming weeks, a level not seen since mid-February, as the largest cryptocurrency by market cap could face billions of dollars’ worth of selling pressure.
BTC prices have plunged more than 10% in the past seven days, according to data from CoinGecko, down below a critical technical indicator Thursday and erasing all the gains made since the end of February.
Trading companies like QCP Capital have Bearish sentiment attributed to the wallet activity of a German government entity and the defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox, and some market analysts say there will be more trouble to come.
“Bitcoin selling pressure is unlikely to ease in the coming days,” Rachel Lin, founder of on-chain cryptocurrency exchange SynFutures, said in an interview. “The German government still has over $2.3 billion in Bitcoin, Mt. Gox has over $8 billion, and the U.S. government has over $12 billion.
“The market expects most Mt. Gox users to abandon their tokens, but we could see a rebound if the sell-off is less than expected. On the other hand, if there is enough selling to push the price lower, we could soon reach the $50,000 level,” he said.
Alex Kuptsikevich, senior market analyst at FxPro, echoed the sentiment in an email to CoinDesk: “Bitcoin has broken below the 200-day moving average and has so far failed to bounce above it, trying to stay within established patterns.
“From the current position, a further decline to $51,000 (the February consolidation area) is more likely than the same amount of growth to $65,000,” Kuptsikevich added. Moving averages are a measure of an asset’s closing prices over a period of time that can help identify a trading opportunity.
Additionally, a wallet linked to the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has moved millions of dollars in bitcoin to cryptocurrency exchanges since mid-June. Traders say the moves imply an intent to sell assets seized from a piracy market in 2013.
Meanwhile, BTC prices appeared to briefly recover mid-morning in Europe, rising to nearly $55,000 from a low of $53,600 in early Asian hours. The sudden drop had prompted more than $550 million in crypto longs, or bets on higher prices, to be liquidated in the last 24 hours.