Catching up on a wild Tuesday market, Bitcoin price reached a peak of $69,324 and soon afterwards, dropped down by 10% resulting in a $1Billion sell-off. While Bitcoin has remained the king of all cryptocurrencies since 2011, recently many analysts are predicting the Bitcoin era to be soon taken over by altcoin season.
Bitcoin Rises Past $69K and Tumbles 10%
On Tuesday, Bitcoin crossed its previous ATH and surged to $69,324. However, almost immediately, the Binance order book showed huge sell orders. With a massive number of traders lined up to make profits, sell orders worth 300 Bitcoins amounting to $20 million at $69,000 and 500 Bitcoins at $70,000 resulted in an immediate drop sending the BTC Price level below $60K in one strike.
Once Bitcoin passed $69K and reached $69,324, it resulted in an intense selling pressure causing Bitcoin to fall over $1,000 in just a minute. The subsequent sell-off waves pushed the price further down, hitting a low of $59,700.
Despite the volatility, Bitcoin managed to rebound to $62,800. The pullback resulted in a 7% decline over the past 24 hours.
Also, the volatility resulted in liquidations worth $1.1 billion of derivatives trading positions across various digital assets within 24 hours. Of the total liquidations, $870 million were attributed to long positions, emphasizing the impact of the sudden market downturn on leveraged traders.
Altcoins Await their Time
As Bitcoin experiences frequent rollercoaster rides, analysts are turning their attention to the altcoin market, which witnessed a significant 50% increase, reaching $1.2 trillion in the last month. While we saw meme coins surging significantly, major altcoins like Ethereum, Cardano, and Polygon (MATIC) have not fully joined the rally.
Matthew Seigel, Head of Digital Assets at VanEck, is optimistic about 2024 being a promising year for altcoins, particularly Ethereum. Seigel highlighted Ethereum’s outperformance against Bitcoin, rising 56% compared to Bitcoin’s 50% increase since the start of the year. He expects ETH to continue this trend, especially with the upcoming block reward halving.
While meme coins have shown their capability by surging profits, investors may shift focus to other altcoins, including Ethereum and Solana. This rotation of profits within the altcoin ecosystem could trigger a broader rally in various cryptocurrencies, as observed in the phenomenon of altcoin profit rotation.
Bitcoin-Influenced Market Crash
The Bitcoin crash further resulted in the price crash of meme coins like Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and others which raised concerns about the speculative nature of these assets. Trader @Cryptomanran advised, “Memes are an amazing trade but remember to take profits kids and put them into protocols that will make a difference in 5 years!”
On the other hand, quality altcoins with strong fundamentals, such as Ethereum and Solana, showed resilience. Ethereum’s upcoming Dencun upgrade and Solana’s competitive gas fees position them as survivors in the bloody Bitcoin crash which affected altcoins and meme coins.
