Bitcoin Freefall: Prices Drop Nearly $200 in 1 Hour

by Stan Higgins, Coin Desk:

Bitcoin prices tumbled sharply this morning.
According to data from CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index, markets averages dropped only days after passing the $1,000 mark on 1st January. This morning’s fall came after prices reached a high of $1,153.02 in early morning trading.

Still, despite coming within reach of all-time highs, prices fell more than 20% across global exchanges before recovering, with markets reaching a low of $887.47, the lowest figure observed on the BPI since 25th December.

At press time, the average price of bitcoin was $958.31, a decline of more than 15% from the day’s peak.

The movements marked a sharped contrast from yesterday’s trading sessions.

Then, prices surged past the $1,100 mark, a rally that saw markets climb more than 10% over the course of the day. At the time, however, sell order pressure kept markets below the all-time high, leading some analysts to predict that prices could fall sharply in the face of additional pressure.

CNY-denominated markets fell more than 15% from the start of the day, dropping to a low of ¥6,160.68. BPI data reports that CNY-denominated markets are trading at an average of ¥6,644.34 at press time.

Rally in question

Today’s price move raises the question of whether the rally that began last month will continue into the new year – or if we’re in for a repeat of 2013-2014.

One might be tempted to look at the steadily rising markets over the past few weeks – in mid-December, the price hadn’t yet crossed the $800 line – but this metric is only part of the equation.

However, the answer to whether the current bitcoin rally is sustainable may lie in the volume numbers, or the amount of money traded per day across global bitcoin exchanges.

At least one exchange operator says that the volume picture is different this year than it was during the last market high in late 2013, which saw prices cross the $1,100 mark before tumbling over the months to come.

When reached for comment, representatives from Chinese bitcoin exchange Huobi – which boasts nearly a quarter of the world’s bitcoin trading market share – said that the situation is very different from three years ago.

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