History of Bitcoin Slumps Makes $20,000 Realistic Target

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Crypto fans desperate for a floor in Bitcoin’s selloff may have to be patient. Every significant slump in the largest cryptocurrency since 2014 has reached the 200-week moving average. That lies close to $20,000 -- or about 35% below Bitcoin’s current price, which is already down by a similar percentage in 2022.

(Reuters) On Tuesday, bitcoin fell briefly below $30,000 for the first time in 10 months, while cryptocurrencies overall have lost nearly $800 billion in market value in the past month, according to data site CoinMarketCap, as investors fret about tightening monetary policy.

Compared with the Fed's last tightening cycle which began in 2016 crypto is a much bigger market, raising concerns about its interconnectivity with the rest of the financial system.

In November, the most popular cryptocurrency, bitcoin, hit an all-time high of more than $68,000, pushing the value of the crypto market to $3 trillion, according to CoinGecko. That figure was $1.51 trillion on Tuesday.

Bitcoin accounts for nearly $600 billion of that value, followed by ethereum, with a $285 billion market cap.

Although cryptocurrencies have enjoyed explosive growth, the market is still relatively small.

The U.S. equity markets, for example, are worth $49 trillion while the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association has pegged the outstanding value of U.S. fixed income markets at $52.9 trillion as of the end of 2021.

Cryptocurrency started out as a retail phenomenon, but institutional interest from exchanges, companies, banks, hedge funds and mutual funds is growing fast.

While data on the proportion of retail versus institutional investors in the crypto market is hard to come by, Coinbase, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, said