Bitcoin, Ether Slide for 4th Consecutive Day, While Altcoin Trading Volume Spikes

While bitcoin and ether slid for a fourth consecutive day to trim a portion of their respective 66% and 53% year-to-date gains, a couple of lesser-known altcoins rose on high trading volume Tuesday. Bitcoin appears to be settling into a range, flirting with support levels around the $27,500 mark. The visible range volume profile (VRVP) tool shows high levels of trading activity between 28,000 and 27,400. Those “high volume nodes,” generally represent areas where price moves can stall, as they represent historic areas of agreement between buyers and sellers. Lower volume nodes between 26,700 and 25,000 represent areas where prices could decline quickly, given the decreased levels of historic agreement. A decline into this latter range would mean a few things for bitcoin:

1. The current level of support will have been broken through to the downside.
2. The lower range of bitcoin’s Bollinger Bands will have been breached, a traditionally bearish sign
3. The next higher volume node to the downside sits at $23,950, roughly 14% below current prices.

Whether the spread between the upper and lower band increases will be key to watch, as it would indicate increased volatility, and in this case, downside risk. On Wednesday, bitcoin’s Bollinger Band spread increased by 5%, following seven days of declines. The spread between ether’s Bollinger Bands has been declining over the most recent seven days, declining by 3% most recently. The narrowing volatility coincides with high volume nodes at $1,811, implying that near-term support exists for ETH prices. Meanwhile, lower profile altcoins Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash were among the few digital assets in positive territory as they recently grained more than 3% and 10%, respectively over the previous 24 hours. The assets’ trading volume also more than doubled their respective 20-day averages. Trading volume of smart contracts platform Cosmos’ ATOM token and decentralized network Filecoin’s FIL token also spiked. The uptick in activity – likely tied to network congestion on the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains – caused investors to look for alternatives. But the spike may simply represent a reversal of oversized moves to the downside on Monday.