Bitcoin Drops Below $8K, Stocks See Volatility Amid Global Trade Tensions

Tuesday, June 4 —  virtually all of the top cryptocurrencies are today seeing deep red in a market-wide correction, with bitcoin (BTC) dropping back below the $8,000 price point, as Coin360 data shows.

Market visualization courtesy of Coin360

Having bullishly broken through the psychological price point of $9,000 at the end of May, bitcoin has gradually corrected downwards in subsequent days. To press time, the top coin is trading at $7,950 — roughly 6.7% down on the day and losing its hold on the $8,000 mark, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Bitcoin’s sharp tumble started very early trading hours, with the coin swiftly dropping from roughly $8,500 at midnight to around $8,000 by 1:00AM (UTC+1). Since then, the cryptocurrency has brushed an intraday low of roughly $7,865 before slightly regaining ground before press time.  

On the week, the cryptocurrency’s losses have reached 8.78%.

Bitcoin 24-hour price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Largest altcoin by market cap ether (ETH) has seen a loss of 6.36% on the day to press time to trade around $247. Ether has today correlated with bitcoin’s price tumble, losing value during very early trading hours. On its 7-day chart, the alt has seen jagged volatility, breaking above $285 on May 30, then seeing seeing a sharp correction back to $250,before reclaiming the $260-70 range.

Ether is reporting an 8.7% loss on the week.

Ether 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

XRP has reported a 7% loss on the day to trade at $0.41 by press time. While holding its ground on the XRP-BTC chart, XRP has lost sharply against the U.S. dollar over the past 24 hours. On the week, XRP’s losses stand at a milder 3.53%.

XRP 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Among the top ten cryptocurrencies at press time, all are in the red except for eighth-largest coin bitcoin sv (BSV), which has reported a 3% gain on the day to trade around $221.

The highest 24-hour loss has been reported by 6th largest crypto eos (EOS), which is down 9.36% to trade at $6.70 by press time. Bitcoin cash (BCH), litecoin (LTC) and stellar (XLM) are all down between 7-8% on the day.

Widening out to the top twenty, all further coins are red. 18th largest coin tezos (XTZ) has seen the highest loss, down 10.25% to trade at $1.31 by press time. Tron (TRX), iota (MIOTA), neo (NEO) and nem (XEM) are all reporting losses of between 8 and 10% on the day.

Ethereum classic (ETC) and dash (DASH) are meanwhile seeing milder losses of 4.2 and 5.5% respectively.

To press time, the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is at around $254.29 billion — as compared with an intraweek high of $286.55 billion on May 30. Bitcoin dominance is at 55.8%.

Total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies. Source: CoinMarketCap

According to data released by the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission yesterday, the number of open contracts for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s (CME) bitcoin (BTC) futures ostensibly hit at an all-time high for the week from May 27 to June 3.

Analytics firm Delphi Digital has meanwhile argued that bitcoin has been outperforming weaker traditional risk assets, with the latter seeing selling pressure amid waning sentiment for economic growth in 2019 and United States-China trade tensions.

In traditional markets, U.S. stock index futures opened slightly higher this morning, with Dow futures rising 9 points — indicating a positive open of more than 52 points — as of 01.45 a.m. ET, CNBC reported. Futures on the S&P and Nasdaq reported similarly slight gains.

Yesterday, St. Louis Federal Reserve president James Bullard revealed that a U.S. interest rate cut “may be warranted soon” in light of the risks to economic growth presented by international trade feuds as well as weak domestic inflation.