As weekly bears have gained control of the market, Bitcoin has now fallen below the crucial support level of $17,000. The price of the most widely used cryptocurrency is currently at $16,723, down 2.5% from a week ago.
The crypto market is under pressure following recent happenings
The overall cryptocurrency market has been under intense selling pressure, culminating in a $50 billion loss and a 6% drop in value during the past 24 hours. BTC has given up all weekly gains and is back in negative territory as a result of the most recent price decrease.
The BTC/USD exchange rate was tracked by TradingView. In respect to the latest macroeconomic data and the US Federal Reserve's resolution to boost interest rates, the pair completely reversed its gain to one-month highs.
The value of Ethereum has also decreased over 7% during the last 24 hours, as shown by data from CoinGecko. The second-largest cryptocurrency has slowed down during the previous week and is currently selling below $1,178. The bulk of the $117 million in leveraged positions that were destroyed throughout the whole cryptocurrency market were made up of Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Crypto investors alarmed by Binance FUD
Cryptocurrency investors have been frightened by the current happenings surrounding Binance but have been warned against overreacting to "fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD)" about the exchange and other entities.
On Friday, Mazars Group broke connections with the exchange and ceased serving as Binance's proof-of-reserves auditor. The auditing firm halted "all work for crypto clients," as seen on Bloomberg. The action was taken after a divisive report on Binance was published last week. The report was taken off Mazars website in response to the criticism. Despite being generally believed to be an audit and not because of CZ, the report was basically an AUP, or "agreed-upon procedure."
In essence, a less thorough examination of their reserves. Mazars stated in an email that "this is due to concerns regarding the way these reports are received by the public." Mazars has also distanced itself from Kucoin and Crypto.com, as neither report can be accessed on its website anymore.
Also, the recent collapse in the cryptocurrency market also parallels the sharp downturn on Wall Street. The Dow Jones dropped 1% more on Friday. And the central bank's aggressive monetary tightening is what led to this price fall.
At one point, Bitcoin seemed to be ending the year on a high note after responding favorably to US inflation and Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers in addition to subsequent Fed interest rate decisions.
The rate of price change for a variety of items is measured by the CPI. November's rate increase was 0.1%, which was less than October's rate of inflation. The CPI data at the time predicted an increase in prices of 0.3%.
Bitcoin bulls continue to hold a slight advantage
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' standards, inflation was undoubtedly still increasing on Wednesday, although much more slowly than it had the month before. This suggests that the Federal Reserve's inflation-fighting hawkish actions have been effective thus far.
The alpha coin failed to hold onto its recent gains, according to Jim Wyckoff, an analyst at Kitco News, but despite the ongoing decline, Bitcoin bulls have succeeded in keeping a short-term technical lead.
According to Wyckoff, "Bitcoin-U.S. dollar prices are lower in early U.S. trade on Friday as a result of a customary negative adjustment late in the week after achieving a five-week high on Wednesday."
Prices, he wrote, "remain in an uptrend on the daily chart, and bulls have a slight overall near-term technical advantage." The economic and market underpinnings of Bitcoin are still solid, despite the price of BTC witnessing a series of sharp declines, each accompanied by spectacular losses for the big participants in the sector.
