Hassan Maishera
TL;DR
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Bitcoin is down by more than 1% in the last 24 hours and could drop below the $27k level soon.
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The market’s poor performance comes amidst geopolitical uncertainty in the Middle East.
Analysts Expect Market Volatility Amidst The Israel-Palestine War
Bitcoin, the world’s leading cryptocurrency by market cap, has been underperforming so far this week. BTC has lost more than 1% of its value over the last 24 hours and is currently trading around the $27,500 region.
The poor performance comes amidst geopolitical uncertainty caused by the Israeli war against the Hamas. In its report yesterday, Bitfinex revealed that since the beginning of October, bitcoin has been more volatile on average than the past 200 days in the asset’s history.
The cryptocurrency exchange wrote that,
"Bitcoin and other crypto asset isolated high volatility events are continuing to rise, and with historical volatility sustaining above crucial averages, this trend is likely to continue," the report added. One isolated high volatility event cited was on Oct. 2, when historical 24-hour volatility increased by over 340%. The options market is currently pricing in more volatility for bitcoin as in the past. Implied volatility currently stands at 37.8%, while historical volatility is at 32.4%."
Bitcoin’s volatility is in sync with similar volatility increases in U.S. equities as geopolitical uncertainty continues to affect the financial markets.
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, suffered even bigger losses. ETH is down by 3% in the last 24 hours and is now trading below $1,600 per coin. Its poor performance comes after reports emerged that some Ethereum developers sold off some of their ETH holdings.
The broader cryptocurrency market has lost roughly 2% in the last 24 hours, with the total crypto market cap now around $1.07 trillion.
