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The cryptocurrency market has been trading fairly sideways for the past seven days leaving many wondering which direction it would break next. There were the optimists who were pointing towards factors that seemed to suggest a big rally was on the way, but that was put to rest as the price of the major coin fell to below $9,500.

Bitcoin’s price is down nearly seven percent in the last 24 hours as it went from hovering around $10,200 to sharply falling in a matter of minutes to $9,700. Since then it has slowly been shedding value to sit at its current price, at publication, of $9,423.

This sharp fall in the price of the major cryptocurrency will be worrying for many as it has shattered through its $10,000 resistance floor, and is continuing to fall. More so, the altcoin market is also following Bitcoins heavy drop with some major altcoins seeing even bigger losses over the last 24 hours. 

A bearish turn?

It is uncertain as to what is driving this recent freefall in the market as there has been no direct news of either positive or negative nature to suggest such a drop. There was a suggestion that Friday may see a huge bout of volatility because a set of Bitcoin futures contracts were set to expire at the end of the week.

CME futures expiration were expected to have an impact on markets. A Twitter user, known as Skew, said on Tuesday that the deadline will see approximately 50 percent of open interest expires. 

When futures contracts expire, they are known to spark volatility for Bitcoin, but different events have historically behaved in different ways. However, this latest batch of contract investors seem to be more on the bearish side, according to Skew.

“Some of those positions will be rolled but overall institutional investors have been looking elsewhere in August!” he commented.

Failed safe haven

One person who has jumped all over the recent fall in the price of Bitcoin is renowned Gold bug Peter Schiff who has been campaigning against the notion that Bitcoin is a safe haven asset in the face of global financial instability. 

In a tweet Schiff, noted the price of Bitcoin was dropping below $10,000 once again, and for him this meant the safe haven argument was over.
“Bitcoin has again failed the safe haven test. On Friday, as escalating trade tensions sent global stock markets plunging, investors sought refuge in monetary safe havens. The Japanese yen, Swiss franc, and especially gold all moved higher. Yet Bitcoin plunged by more than stocks!” he wrote.

On a more positive note

Despite the fall in price, there is still some positivity around for the Bitcoin bulls, such as founder of merchant bank Galaxy Digital, Mike Novogratz. 

Speaking on Bloomberg Novogratz noted that regardless of the sideways trading, and the recent dip, Bitcoin was still up over 200 percent this year. 

“Bitcoin started the year at $3,800, traded at $3,500 and now it’s at $10,200 and so it’s up 200% odd percent already,” he told the network. 

He added:

“It has had a huge run, and so I think this is a bit of consolidation.”
 

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