Bitcoin Goes Wild as Volatility Jumps to Three-Month High
Bitcoin Volatility Jumps to Three-Month High After Late Plunge
(Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin volatility is back to levels not seen since early November, with the bulls and bears sparring at the $10,000 price level.
Historical swings over the past 10 days on the Bitcoin-U.S. dollar pair surged to 65% on Wednesday, the highest level since Nov. 6, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Bitcoin plunged late in yesterday’s session, going from being little-changed at $10,168 to a drop of more than 8% to $9,327 about 45 minutes later. It recovered somewhat after that, and traded Thursday at $9,501 as of 12:52 p.m. in New York.
“It could be a technical move with highly leveraged derivatives positions getting called,” said Emmanuel Goh, who runs crypto-derivatives tracker Skew. He noted that some long perpetual swap positions got liquidated on Bitmex around the time of the Wednesday’s drop.
Cryptocurrencies are known for their volatility, and the largest of them has continued to live up to that reputation. Bitcoin is still up more than 30% to start 2020, which some market players attribute to a search by investors for alternative asset classes amid concerns about the coronavirus outbreak.
Based on the GTI Global Strength Indicator, which measures upward and downward movements of successive closing prices, the largest cryptocurrency triggered a sell signal as it attempted to once again retake the $10,000 level.
--With assistance from Olga Kharif and Kenneth Sexton.
To contact the reporter on this story: Joanna Ossinger in Singapore at jossinger@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Anstey at canstey@bloomberg.net, Cecile Vannucci, Dave Liedtka
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
