Bitcoin Prices Form a ‘Death Cross.’ Is Another Selloff on the Way?

“Bit­coin may have no prob­lem ris­ing … to $26,400. The ques­tion is whether this will cause the sell­off to inten­si­fy,” said Alex Kupt­sike­vich, an ana­lyst at bro­ker FxPro. “A death cross has formed on the dai­ly time­frame, which means that more traders focused on long-term tech­ni­cal analy­sis will be look­ing to sell on the upside.” 

Indeed, while cryp­tos have risen in recent days along­side the wider stock mar­ket, with the 

Dow Jones Indus­tri­al Average
and 

S&P 500
also edg­ing high­er, the mar­ket back­drop has dark­ened for dig­i­tal assets as Bit­coin remains at depressed lev­els. A death cross has formed for the first time since Jan­u­ary 2022, mark­ing an ill omen from a tech­ni­cal per­spec­tive. Bit­coin prices began 2022 above $47,000, plung­ing more than 65% to their trough that November.

A death cross is a close­ly watched tech­ni­cal indi­ca­tor that often sug­gests a pre­vail­ing down­trend in prices, or at least a slide in sen­ti­ment toward bear­ish­ness. It marks when the 50-day mov­ing aver­age for prices falls below the 200-day mov­ing average.

“There have been nine Bit­coin death cross­es since 2011 and it’s almost a toss of a coin whether or not Bit­coin will be low­er in the three, six or 12 months after the indi­ca­tor flash­es,” said Antoni Trenchev, founder and man­ag­ing part­ner at cryp­to lender Nexo. “It tra­di­tion­al­ly indi­cates a bear­ish shift in momen­tum and con­firms what many are think­ing: It’s going to be a hard slog for Bit­coin in com­ing months.”

Beyond Bit­coin,

Ether
—the sec­ond-largest crypto—rose 1.5% to $1,620. Small­er cryptos 

Car­dano
and 

Poly­gon
trad­ed just below flat. Meme­coins were more mixed, with 

Doge­coin
advanc­ing less than 1% and 

Shi­ba Inu
falling less than 1%.

Write to Jack Den­ton at jack.denton@barrons.com