Bitcoin falls below $18,000, Ethereum falls below $900 as sell pressure

• After Bitcoin and Ethereum fell below crucial support levels of $20,000 and $1,000 on Saturday morning.
• The selloff accelerated as HODLers seek the bottom
• “We are on the path of maximum pain.” On Friday, Antoni Trenchev

Just after 3 a.m. on Saturday morning, Bitcoin dropped below $20,000 for the first time. The following hour, Ethereum followed suit and went below $1,000. These numbers were feared as crucial support levels for the top two coins by market capitalization.

By 5:15 a.m. EST, however, both seemed to have avoided the sudden precipitous drop that many had expected would ensue if $20,000 and $1,000 were breached. Some may have hoped that $18,979 and $987 would represent the troughs of this market collapse.

Read More: Bitcoin drops below $20,000 for the first time since 2020

Unfortunately, the situation worsened again about noon. At 4:30 p.m. EST on CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin’s price fell to $17,775, and Ethereum’s price fell to $898.

The current Crypto Winter differs from 2018 in that cryptocurrencies are falling alongside tech stocks as the larger economy is fragile, inflation is soaring, and a full-scale recession appears impending.

As crypto enthusiasts search for the bottom (and some wait to re-enter the market), the situation could deteriorate significantly before it improves.

The damage has been illustrated by a series of crypto firm failures or insolvency warnings, such as Celsius halting withdrawals, Babel Finance doing the same, and Three Arrows Capital investors withdrawing their funds. Grayscale’s GBTC is selling at a record discount to Bitcoin’s market price.

Read More: SEC, state regulators are investigating crypto lender Celsius over account freezes

Saturday, Kraken’s director of growth marketing and Bitcoin influencer Dan Held warned, “We are on the path of maximum pain.” On Friday, Antoni Trenchev, the creator of cryptocurrency lender Nexo, stated on Bloomberg that the current slump “reminds me, quite frankly, of the 1907 bank panic.”