Strong bearish sentiment in the crypto market – bitcoin price falls over 50% in the first half of the year

Bitcoin (BTC) could post new 2018 lows over the weekend, having found acceptance below key price support.
Despite signs of a possible corrective rally seen earlier yesterday, the leading cryptocurrency closed below $6,000 for the first time since November 12, signaling a downside break of a major support (February low).

While the bears had briefly pushed prices down to $5,755 (2018 low) last Sunday, a close below $6,000 had remained elusive. Now that prices sit above $6,000, but the focus is back on the long-run bearish technical charts, which continue to call a move lower to $5,000.
At press time, BTC is changing hands at $6,300 on coindesk – down 0.65 percent on a 24-hour basis (see the chart below).

Despite the drop below support, bitcoin is still outperforming most other cryptocurrencies and is now at 11th place on the list of best performing top-100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

Clearly, investors have become more risk-averse, venturing out of high-risk cryptocurrencies and into bitcoin (and possibly then on to fiat currency). Consequently, the BTC dominance rate has climbed to 43 percent – the highest level since April 12.
Unfortunately for the bulls, the stage looks set for a further decline in bitcoin prices. Even so, the bears still need to keep their eyes open, as the unwinding of short positions ahead of month’s end and more importantly, quarter’s end, could again lift prices above $6,000.

Source: coindesk.com