As our previous article reported, the SEC decision to delay a ruling on the BTC ETF plunged the market further into losses. Ever since then, we have since altcoins slide even lower with Ethereum also going below $300 at one point. We are experiencing a price pullback adversely affecting the top 10 coins. Bitcoin has managed to remain relatively resilient in comparison, however, a few nights ago it suffered a key dip below the support price of $6k for only the second time in 2018. It has since recovered to around $6.3k at time of writing which is still more than 10% below its previous weekly high; in this article, we explore the potential consequences of Bitcoin sliding below a critical support level.

Summer Market Outlook

The general trend after the ATHs of late December 2017 has been a bear market that has so far failed to significantly react to the plethora of bullish news that has been given out in recent months. We are likely to see this bear trend continue into the near future; however, some experts are even warning of total wipeout. We explore whether the Bitcoin slide and the altcoin massacre is signalling something more devastating for the market. For context, prices saw a peak around the July period in which we saw BTC climb to levels around 8.4k. This peak was a significant rise from the only other time BTC has dipped below the 6k support line this year which was in June. This bullish trend did not last, however, and the start of August saw the majority of these gains wiped out. Bitcoin has been slipping. However, in the context of altcoins, it has remained far more stable. Ethereum is down around 40% this month. Since August 7th, around $43 billion has been wiped out from the total Cryptocurrency market.

Future of Alt-Coins

While Bitcoin is looking weak near term, the future of the majority of alt-coins is looking bleak when looking at the current market. Some experts are predicting a bullish rebound similarly to the December highs, whereas others are predicting a complete wipeout of 90% of alt-coins. The president of Xapo, Ted Rogers ominously stated on Monday that; “90%+ of CoinMarketCap list would disappear eventually – might as well happen now.” Much like the dotcom bust decades ago, we believe that most altcoins will not be around to last long-term; however, those that have the most viable projects behind them will flourish in the future.

Conclusion

The bears have had the upper hand this year, after bulls dominating at the end of 2017. It remains to be seen how BTC will react to slipping under its crucial support level of 6k. As alt-coins continue to dip at astonishing rates, it is evident that investors are taking their money out and some of this is going back into BTC which is seen as less risky. Predictions of a total wipeout are far too premature; however, it is evident that the current market poses a significant risk to many established alt-coins. Those ATHs reached in December continue to look like a distant and forgotten dream.