🔽 Bitcoin and major altcoins dropped 5% on delayed PBOC news
While European equity markets are pulling back slightly today, cryptocurrencies are experiencing another steep drop. Bitcoin as well as major altcoins, like Ethereum or Ripple, are trading around 5% lower following an announcement on People's Bank of China website. PBOC said that all crypto-related transactions are illegal in China. While this may seem as a major announcement it cannot be treated as "news". The Chinese central bank has already announced it in the middle of September and it was just the website announcement that was posted today. In other news, it was also reported that Chinese ministries vow to root out crypto mining from the country. However, this is not news either as actions aimed at achieving it have been undertaken for months.
Various media agencies reason today's price drops with the PBOC announcement and there is not really any other news that could justify the moves today.
Bitcoin failed to break above the upper limit of the local market geometry near $45,000. Downtrend structure has been maintained and a move towards fresh local low cannot be ruled out. Key near-term support levels to watch are 50% retracement of recent upward move ($41,500 area) and lower limit of market geometry at $39,500. Source: xStation5