Friday, Oct. 18 — Bitcoin (BTC) has lost support at $8,000 again after a brief recovery ended up further downward selling pressure.
Cryptocurrency market daily overview. Source: Coin360
Bitcoin eyes lower support bands
Data from Coin360 showed BTC/USD briefly hit $7,850 on Friday before rebounding to just above $7,900. The latest dip capped daily losses of up to 2% for traders, with the pair having reached a high of $8,120 the previous day.
Bitcoin seven-day price chart. Source: Coin360
As Cointelegraph reported, analysts were dismissive of the upward momentum, with the broader health of Bitcoin prices still subject to suspicion.
Zooming out, they considered little to have changed as Bitcoin fluctuated around the $8,000 mark.
“Well, not showing strength after a small bearish retest. Looks like a copy of beginning October & still hanging around here in the green 'support' zones,” Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van der Poppe summarized in a Twitter analysis.
Those zones represent longer-term trends which BTC/USD continues to test. The last bastion of support in the lowest zone lies at about $7,400. For van der Poppe, that area forms the obvious destination if current levels break down further.
“If lost -> below at $7,500 main area to look for,” he added.
Altcoin investors see flat performance
Altcoin markets remained choppy as Bitcoin fought off its latest turbulence. Movements were nonetheless muted, with tokens remaining within 3% of the previous day.
XRP reversed half of its 5% gains from Thursday to trade just below $0.29 at publishing time. Litecoin (LTC) also posted modest gains, rising 2.6%.
Ether (ETH), the largest altcoin by market cap, was down a negligible 0.4% and trading at $174.
Ether seven-day price chart. Source: Coin360
The overall cryptocurrency market cap was 66.1% dominated by Bitcoin, with a total value of $217 billion.