Altcoins are getting sold aggressively for BTC. Since last Thursday BTC/USD gained over 60 percent while ETH/BTC dropped by close to 45 percent. Now both ETH and Dash are in a bear market versus BTC.

ETH/BTC Drops by 45 Percent

Ether has lost almost 45 percent of its value versus bitcoin. There’s a speculative rush into BTC, likely preempting the launch of bitcoin futures. The CBOE announced that they will launch bitcoin futures this Sunday at 6 PM EST. Their competitor the CME will do so 8 days later.

Today the price of bitcoin hit a new all-time high of $16,614 dollars per coin, peaking at close to $20,000 on some other exchanges. Right now we are trading close to the Fxopen highs at $16,600 dollars. The surge in BTC/USD has led to a massive sell-off in altcoins, with ETH/BTC dropping by 44.83 percent in only seven days.

As we said back on Thursday, the bears need to push ETH/BTC below the 0.03712 lows to start a new downtrend. As can see on the chart above since that break the losses in this pair has been massive. A move back above the 0.05 round figure is needed to end this downtrend. A break above the 0.05906 BTC swing high would shift the trend to the upside. On the longer-term charts ETH/BTC is in a downtrend on the weekly chart but in an uptrend on the monthlies.

Dash Trend Shifts

The large change in market sentiment toward BTC made its impact in DSH/BTC as well. After being in an uptrend for almost one month the pair ended the rally yesterday with the break below 0.0576 BTC. Later in the day we also got a break below the 0.05 round figure, thereby starting a new downtrend in prices.

We are trading just below the 0.04 round figure at the moment. To end the current bear market the bulls will need to push Dash above the 0.08018 BTC swing high. A break above here would start a new rally as well. On the longer-term charts, we have a mixed picture, DSH/BTC is bearish on the weekly but bullish on the monthly.

Bitcoin Hits New All-Time Highs

The speculative fever is heating up in BTC/USD as the pair keeps hitting new all-time highs. The BTC rally will technically remain in place until the $8,811 swing low is taken out but caution should be exercised on entering new positions here. Whenever you have large news-driven moves like these with BTC futures, there’s a substantial risk of a sharp correction once the event is priced in. That may happen even before the official launch of the futures this Sunday. And like we said in previous articles, trading sizes should be much lower then your usual size due to the elevated volatility.

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