Bitcoin and Ether Market Update: October 24, 2019

Total crypto market cap lost $18.7 billion of its value since Monday, October 21 and now stands at $203.8 billion. Top ten coins are all in red for the last 24 hours with Binance Coin (BNB) and Bitcoin SV (BSV) being the worst performers with 7.2 and 7.3 percent of losses respectively. At the time of writing bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $7,419 on the Bitstamp daily chart, while ether (ETH) stands at $160 and Ripple’s XRP dropped to $0.269.

BTC/USD

Bitcoin recovered above $8,000 on Sunday, October 20 and closed the day with a 3.4 percent increase to $8,239. It remained flat for the 7-day period.

The most popular cryptocurrency opened the new week by climbing above $8,300 during the day. Bulls, however, were once again rejected around the lower end of the mid-$8,000 levels and fell back to $8,208, closing the session in the red.

A similar thing happened on the next day, Tuesday, October 22 when the BTC/USD pair peaked at $8,323 during intraday, just to end up the day at $8,022. It lost 2.2 percent of its value and was once again dangerously close to the critical support level at $8,000

The mid-week session on Wednesday, October 23 was the worst day for bitcoin since September 24. The coin drew a huge red candle on the daily chart and lost 6.8 percent to close at $7,470. We are looking at $7,500 as the next major support line before $7,000.

The Facebook Libra hearings on October 23 colored in red the whole cryptocurrency market as BTC touched $7,303, its lowest point since May this year. Marc Zuckerberg, CEO of the social media giant, testified before the House Financial Services Committee defending its very own digital currency project.

Market players reacted on the news that Zuckerberg failed to convince Congress representatives in Libra’s potential in the light of the personal data leaks and privacy handling issues the company is facing the last two years. “Facebook could even be forced to leave the Libra Association entirely if the group decides to move forward with the currency without approval from U.S. regulators” added Zuckerberg.

Top 10 cryptocurrencies lost between 5 and 10 percent of its market capitalization on the news.

ETH/USD

The Ethereum Project token ETH followed the general crypto market trend on Sunday, October 20 and gained 2.3 percent to close at $175. It ended the week 4 percent higher compared to the previous 7-day period.

The ether started trading on Monday, October 21 by moving up to $178 during intraday. Buyers, however, could not hold to their gains and drop back down to $174 without being able to escape from the downtrend channel.

On Tuesday, October 22, it lost another 1.7 percent and fell even lower to $171.

We found the ETH/USD pair breaking both $170 and $165 supports on Wednesday, October 23 as the Facebook Libra hearings heavily impacted the whole cryptocurrency market. The ETH coin lost 5.2 percent and closed the day at $162. Bears were even able to push prices down to $153 at some point during the session.