Bitcoin (BTC) Prices Fell to Almost $95,000 Today

Bitcoin prices were seen hovering near the $94,000 level on Thursday evening, December 26, after losing almost 5% of their value in less than 24 hours.

The world’s top digital currency dropped to as low as $94,083.93 earlier in the day, Coinbase data from TradingView showed.

The cryptocurrency began declining from levels of around $99,900 on Christmas Day, according to additional Coinbase figures from TradingView.

As a result, the digital asset depreciated roughly 4.8% in a matter of hours.

After falling to this level, bitcoin recovered somewhat, but was still trading between $94,000 and $95,000 at the time of this writing.

Several potential causal factors were highlighted by analysts as they attempted to explain the cryptocurrency’s recent drop.

Lackluster Trading Volume

One development that market observers pointed to repeatedly was low trading volume, which made it easier for bitcoin to experience more exaggerated price movements.

“With both Christmas and New Year’s falling smack in the middle of two consecutive weeks this year, markets are looking at a more extended period of holiday low volume than usual,” said Tim Enneking, managing partner of Psalion, in emailed comments.

“Low volume frequently results in greater volatility as smaller order sizes can have an outsized impact,” he stated.

Lackluster trading activity seems to be a typical occurrence this time of year, according to Alex Lin, cofounder and general partner at venture capital firm Reforge, who described it as a “common phenomenon” through input submitted through email.

TradingView Malfunction

Amid this environment of reduced trading volume, several market observers pointed to an apparent malfunction on the TradingView website as contributing to bitcoin’s recent decline.

The situation, which Cointelegraph reported on earlier, resulted in the website temporarily stating that bitcoin dominance, meaning its share of the total cryptocurrency market, fell to zero.

Marc P. Bernegger, cofounder of crypto fund of funds AltAlpha Digital, commented on this situation via email.

“The latest fluctuations in Bitcoin price, dropping to around $94,000 from near $100,000, appear to have been influenced by a glitch on TradingView,” he stated.

“This error falsely displayed Bitcoin's dominance at 0%, leading to a panic among traders and subsequent market volatility. This resulted in significant liquidations, with around $33 million in Bitcoin longs being liquidated over a few hours,” Bernegger added.

Lin also mentioned this particular development.

“There was also an untimely glitch on TradingView where Bitcoin's dominance indicator dropped to 0% which may have triggered additional outflows,” he stated.

“So the panic selling from the technical error into a low liquidity environment, amplified by strategic profit-taking after a relatively positive year and major institutional movements of $338mn in BTC ETF outflows on Christmas Eve are the most likely catalysts for the retreat in the last 24 hours,” the analyst added.

Kailas Offers Contrasted View

George Kailas, CEO of Prospero.ai, offered a different perspective on what caused bitcoin’s recent price declines, choosing to focus on a short list of factors.

“I believe what we are seeing here is two things,” he stated via email, the first being “A natural correction on an asset that moved about as fast upwards as you can expect anything to move.”

“To that end, one of the reasons I believe these swings are so wild is the disjointed nature of policy expectations without policy,” he stated, helping flesh out his views on the subject.

“There has been a huge run on the expectation of an American president more friendly to Crypto than any we've seen by far,” said Kailas.

“But these are just expectations, even with a fair expectation of policies being quite friendly towards Crypto, the policies do not exist yet,” he noted.

“So there firstly has to be some probability of downside baked into some promises not coming to fruition,” the analyst emphasized.

“And also, it will be difficult for the market to figure out what a fair price for the impact of these policies are even when they are enacted.”

“But at least when they are policies vs expectations of policy they can be figured out by the market in actuality vs layers of speculation,” he stressed.

Disclosure: I own some bitcoin, bitcoin cash, litecoin, ether, EOS and SOL.