As a result of the new market downturn, the bitcoin (BTC) price has reached its lowest point in 6 weeks. After a two-week sideways trend of the bitcoin (BTC) price, the cryptocurrency has slipped below the $ 3,500 mark today. At the time of writing bitcoin is being traded for $ 3,470.

On Monday, January 28, the time has finally come. After hoping and waiting to see in which direction the recent sideways trend will turn, we now know that the bear market will continue. After a quiet week during which the BTC-USD pair moved only between $ 3,500 and $ 3,760, at the time of writing on Monday, the Bitcoin (BTC) price has now fallen to $ 3,470. This is the lowest price since December 16.

This is how the bitcoin (BTC) price has affected the altcoins

There is no denying that bitcoin and altcoin prices correlate. With the recent downward trend of bitcoin, the courses of the altcoins have fallen as well. Some assets in the top 20 have even suffered large losses.

The cryptocurrency with the biggest price drop was Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which fell to $ 112, losing 10.8%.

At the time of writing, Ethereum (ETH) was traded at $ 106, which means a drop of 6.8%.

BCH’s hard fork, Bitcoin SV, also dropped 9% to $ 64.99.

What will the future BTC price look like?

There is no obvious reason for today’s drop in prices, yet. In the past, it has already become apparent, however, that a longer sideways trend usually ends in a major price drop. A good example of this is when, on November 14, the bitcoin (BTC) price ended a sideways trend of several weeks with a fall to $ 6,000 and shortly after to $ 4,000.

The recent sideways movement of the Bitcoin price didn’t last quite as long, though. It could therefore be assumed that the subsequent price decline will be less pronounced.

The failed development in favour of a bull market on the weekend is another common sign of a price drop. On Saturday, it had at first seemed as if the tide would turn with a price increase to $ 3,658 towards a bull market. One day later, this hope was quickly disappointed when the price fell to $ 3,500, though. Again, this seems to confirm that investors will have to prepare for the prices to fall even lower.

What could also be interesting for our bitcoin forecast, could be a look at the gold price. Since November, a negative correlation between the two popular assets has been observed. In case the gold price moved up, the bitcoin (BTC) price tanked. On the other hand, if the gold price moved down, it was safe for investors to assume that the bitcoin price would rise. The recent acceptance of the classic asset, which has been trading for over $ 1,300 since Friday, may therefore be another indication that bitcoin investors will be facing falling prices for the foreseeable future.

The bitcoin forecast of the analysts

The opinions of the analysts on the performance of the bitcoin (BTC) price in 2019 are largely divided.

In a market update in mid-December, experienced analyst Tone Vays warned investors of signs that the BTC-USD pair could soon be traded for $ 1,300.

On the other hand, CEO of the crypto-exchange Quine, Mike Kayamori, had issued a forecast for 2019, according to which the bitcoin (BTC) price could reach an all-time high of over $ 20,000.

Arthur Hayes, CEO of the BitMEX trading platform, also predicts a positive development for the ICO market in 2019/2020. He told Cointelegraph on December 26 that, as a result, the ETH / BTC pair will soon be trading again for $ 200 again.

Photo by:
Nicolai Berntsen