The Bitcoin price drop is happening exactly the same way now as it did in 2022

At the beginning of the week, bitcoin was still at $74,000, which was the result of a major drop. In early May, the local peak was almost $83,000. However, the real drop came only after that. On Monday, the price quickly fell below $70,000 – this psychological level lasted for a short time, but eventually gave in and sellers took control. Bitcoin then lost important support levels one after another, even those where strong buying interest usually appears, and attempts to bounce back failed.

By the end of the week, BTC had fallen to $61,000, and although there was a $2,000 rebound within minutes, this only increased the forced liquidation of leveraged positions, it could not sustain the price increase. The market has now reached a point where all analysts are now watching not just the $70,000 but also the $60,000 support level to hold.

Bitcoin has lost 15% of its value on a weekly basis, and nearly 26% in the past month. Its market capitalization has decreased by $400 billion, and altcoins have not escaped the lawnmower either. Cardano (ADA) has fallen more than 30%, partly due to the announced sabbatical of founder Charles Hoskinson, and Zcash has plunged 41% after revealing technical security vulnerabilities. Ethereum is down 7% and XRP is down 4%. However, at the beginning of the week, there were other altcoins that performed well: BNB or NEAR were able to produce double-digit growth in a fundamentally falling market. And the renaming of Toncoin did not help either.

Strategy disclosed in a filing with the stock exchange on Monday morning that it sold 32 BTC between May 26 and 31, for an average price of $77,135, for a total of $2.5 million in proceeds. The sale was made to fund a dividend on Strategy’s preferred stock, STRC. This type of stock is a high-yield instrument that the company designed to maintain a par value of $100 for investors. In addition to the fact that the announcement completely shocked the market, there was also a major uproar in the prediction markets: according to Polymarket, the sale will not take place in May, but in June due to the disclosure.

A lucky user has opened the coin, which is available in physical form but contains digital assets, after 15 years, which has resulted in the owner of the wallet being enriched with $1.78 million in BTC. We tell you the full story.

Binance is launching a new service that provides access to over 7,000 US stocks and ETFs. This is another important step towards the crypto exchange offering almost every investment option on a single platform. According to the announcement, users will soon be able to manage their crypto assets, stocks and ETF investments on the same interface. However, it is not yet entirely clear for Hungarian users whether the new service will be available at launch.

Friday’s US jobs report came as a surprise

The US economy added 172,000 jobs in May, compared to analysts’ expectations of just 85,000. The unemployment rate remained at 4.3 percent. The data set sent financial markets into a tailspin.

The much stronger-than-expected jobs report immediately rewrote investors’ interest rate expectations. Futures markets are now pricing in a 65 percent chance of the Fed raising rates in December, with some participants betting on an October hike. This puts inflation back in the Fed’s sights, especially given the price risks created by the conflict in the Middle East.

US labor market data could determine Fed rate cuts, Treasury yields and the future direction of the crypto market, according to Ryan Lee, senior analyst at Bitget Research. With the slowing labor market largely built into market expectations, investors are now primarily paying attention to wage developments and possible changes in the unemployment rate. US Treasury yields and the dollar exchange rate remain highly sensitive to labor market data, as investors look for further evidence that inflation is indeed easing.

Over the past year, employment data has often caused short-term movements in interest rate markets, the currency market and the digital asset market. Stronger-than-expected labor market data has typically pushed up two-year U.S. Treasury yields and strengthened the dollar, which has had a negative impact on Bitcoin and Ethereum. In contrast, weaker labor market data has previously supported crypto assets, as markets saw a greater chance of monetary easing and a more abundant liquidity environment.

Friday’s data release was primarily viewed by markets in terms of the Fed’s future policy. And markets have now been hit hard by the news.

The Nasdaq fell more than 4 percent, its biggest one-day drop in more than a year. The S&P 500’s nine-week winning streak also ended. The technology sector took the biggest hit: semiconductor and AI stocks plunged, with several major chipmakers down more than 10 percent.

In the government securities market, U.S. Treasury yields rose sharply as traders priced in an increasingly aggressive path to interest rate hikes.

And the crypto market was not spared the carnage.

Bitcoin price decline follows 2022 pattern

The crypto market has lost $2 trillion in market capitalization, and Bitcoin’s price has barely caught a breath after falling to its lowest point since early February this year. BTC’s price has fallen to its 200-week simple moving average.

Daan, a trader at Crypto Trades, summed up the situation on the X platform by saying that after a retest around the $80,000 level, the price has continued to fall, and the downward trend since the October peak is clearly in place. According to him, the next key question is whether the $60,000 level will be able to provide lasting support. This price level is particularly important because it is also close to the 200-week moving average, meaning that several technical aspects at once suggest that it could be a kind of decisive buffer zone.

In the short term, sellers still control the market. He observed that every attempt to increase the price on the Binance futures trading platform is immediately suppressed by selling pressure: as soon as buyers try to exert pressure, more and more supply appears above them, holding down the price.