Altcoin Avalanche Begins as Cryptocurrency Markets Shed $16 Billion

Cryptocurrency markets are cooling off during the morning’s Asian trading session. The July fourth parties in the US maybe coming to a close but Bitcoin is beating a retreat at the moment, dragging the altcoins into the quagmire once again.

Bitcoin Dumps 6 Percent

The rapid fire recovery back to $12,000 from its 30 percent purge to $9,600 had the Bitcoin bulls dancing again. There were clearly a lot of buyers below $10,000 and a lot of triggers were ignited when BTC hit that long predicted 30 percent correction.

BTC did not remain at $12,000 for long though and spend the best part of the past 24 hours consolidating at around $11,800. A few hours ago BTC dumped back to $11,000 in one swift candle. Since then it has regained composure settling at around $11,150, down 6 percent on the day.

The move has dropped BTC market capitalization back below $200 billion as the prospect of another lower low looms. It may just consolidate here for a while though; many are of the opinion that for the time being.

Cryptocurrency Crush in Altcoin Avalanche

There is no doubting that Bitcoin dominance is causing the slow death of the altcoin markets which, yet again, are getting battered today. Over the past 24 hours $16 billion has left the space as total market capitalization has declined from over $335 billion to below $320 billion where they currently are. Cryptocurrency trader ‘Moon Overlord’ eyes the potential for gains in a lot of the altcoins, many of which are still totally smashed from their all-time highs.

“The one thing I will say about $ALTS is the upside on them right now is incredible. A lot of the top 100 altcoins are down 95-99%…. they can’t even go much lower. The upside is 10, 20 50X+, what are you waiting for that extra 0.12% down to buy them?”

//twitter.com/MoonOverlord/status/84586499 Other traders are stating that altcoins can drop a further 90 percent from their current weak positions.

“I’ve seen many $alts plunge 90% to the down-side after a 90% drop. Careful, ‘limited downside’ is an extremely dangerous meme for your portfolio, no such thing exists.”

It is true that many are still way down from their peaks and are not looking like recovering anytime soon. The second largest cryptocurrency in the world, Ethereum, is 80 percent down from its giddy height of $1,400 in January last year, and Ripple’s XRP token is down 90 percent according to . Others such as Bitcoin Cash, Cardano, Stellar, Dash, NEO and IOTA are in even more pain as the altcoin avalanche continues. As we round out the week there is a lot of red on the crypto charts during Asian trading this morning, and it could well continue into the weekend.

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