Bitcoin slips under $50K amid warning 'new player' Binance whale is pressuring BTC price

Bitcoin (BTC) lost $50,000 for the first time in several days on Dec. 26 as exchange inflows caught up with the cautiously optimistic mood.

"New player" beefs up $50,000 sell wall

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed volatility hitting BTC/USD overnight on Saturday.

The pair had reached $51,500 before starting to retrace, this culminating in a dip to $49,644. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was back circling $50,000.

The move came in tandem with a rise in inflows to major exchange Binance, with order book data showing a new wall of resistance being built at $50,000.

The behavior points to a large-volume investor shaping market bias, and Binance was already the source of suspicion over such activity in recent days.

"This looks like a new player," data analysis account Material Scientist noted in comments on Binance's rapidly-changing order book setup. 

Overall, exchange balances have crept up 60,000 BTC beginning Dec. 22, from 1.69 million to 1.75 million BTC, data from on-chain monitoring resource Coinglass shows.

Ethereum preserves $4,000 defense zone

In some mild relief for altcoin traders, most large-cap tokens remained relatively unscathed after Bitcoin's latest dip.

Related: Top crypto winners and losers of 2021

Ether (ETH) was still above $4,000 at the time of writing.

Others in the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap either kept losses below 1.5% or saw flat performance.

For ETH/USD, popular trader Pentoshi highlighted $3,940-$4,000 as a "key" area for bulls to defend going forward.

"Currently long. Would like to see a push up and some momentum off this rounded bottom. Looking to sell 4.4-4.5k," he added.