BTC \/ USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBitcoin price hits 18-month lows<\/h2>\n
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC \/ USD hitting $ 20,816, on Bitstamp, its lowest since the week of December 14, 2020.<\/p>\n
A sell-off that began before the weekend intensified after the June 13 Wall Street opening bell, with Bitcoin and altcoins falling in step with United States equities.<\/p>\n
The S&P 500 finished the day down 3.9%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index shed 4.7% ahead of key comments from the US Federal Reserve on its anti-inflation policy.<\/p>\n
The worst of the rout was reserved for crypto, however, and with that, BTC \/ USD lost 22.4% from the start of the week to the time of writing.<\/p>\n
The pair was also \u201cuncomfortably close\u201d to crossing the $ 20,000 mark, trading firm QCP Capital noted, this representing the all-time high from its previous halving cycle, something which had never happened before.<\/p>\n
In a circular to Telegram channel subscribers, QCP flagged both the inflation topic and potential insolvency at fintech protocol Celsius as driving the sell-off.<\/p>\n
“We have been expressing concern about the collapse of a significant credit player since the LUNA blowup. The market is now panicking about the impact and contagion if Celsius becomes insolvent, “it explained:<\/p>\n
“Some key liquidation levels that the market is looking out for are 1,150 in ETH, 0.8 in stETH \/ ETH and 20,000 in BTC. We are getting uncomfortably close. “<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
For other analysts, all bets were off when it came to guessing the BTC price floor or whether key trendlines would hold as support.<\/p>\n