Bitcoin’s Price Breaks Below $7800, as HitBTC is Still Offline

Bitcoin broke below a short-term support level in the early part of the US trading session. The vast majority of altcoins are also in the red, as traders await HitBTC to come back online.

Bitcoin is trading below the psychological $8,000 mark, but even more importantly, below the former support zone around $7,800. If this breakout holds, the market is likely to go in a downtrend for the next couple of days. The next key level is the 100-day SMA at approximately $7,588.

Charting by TradingView

Altcoins are also struggling, with losses across the board. Only a few coins were ever in the positive. USDT, which is pegged to the dollar is experiencing significant flows, as traders opt to take a neutral position. While Binance Coin (BNB) is also holding ground, the overall picture is still very much red:

Visualization by Coin360

The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies did reach a seven-day low around $276 billion, but is still significantly higher than the mid-July lows of $243 billion.

Probably the biggest factor for the extended declines (although the sentiment wasn’t very positive previously) is HitBTC going offline. According to the company, the exchange isn’t working due to a hardware problem and all clients should feel safe about their funds. A fix hadn’t come as of the time of writing, but when it does (and presuming everything is fine), markets will likely stabilize.

When it comes to individual altcoins, today saw a few positive stories, but none were seen as so significant that they could stop the selloff.

• OmiseGo OMG is to be offered at Bitpanda, a cash-to-crypto platform.
• EOS is down more than 10% for the day, despite announcing a new tool for developers.
• Even Verge (XVG), one of the few early winners, returned its gains, which were mostly due to the announcement they are going to be listed on Huobi.