Ethereum (ETH) Risks Losing More Ground Against Bitcoin (BTC) In The Near Future

Ethereum (ETH) has lost significantly agaisnt Bitcoin (BTC) in the past 24 hours. The move was a sharp one that led to ETH/USD leading the crash with the rest of the market following. The cryptocurrency declined hard against Bitcoin (BTC) as well as we can see on the 4H chart for ETH/BTC. It has now declined below a key support at the 19,618 satoshi level and is expected to head lower should it fail to climb back above it. The pair is eventually expected to decline to the bottom of the descending channel but before that happens, we could expect some sort of sideways movement or limited upside.

The altcoin market is at risk of losing the most if Bitcoin (BTC) declines again. If the same pattern repeats then we might see Ethereum (ETH) leading further declines as well. This was a pattern that we noticed around the ICO boom when different altcoin projects would sell their stash of Ethereum (ETH) to fund development and meet expenditures. However, this time most of them would be doing it to stay above water. This could be a very dangerous development considering ETH/USD falls harder than Bitcoin (BTC) anyway in case of most market declines. Now that Ethereum (ETH) is already hovering around $130 and Bitcoin (BTC) risks a decline below $6,864 it would not be surprising at all to see Ethereum (ETH) at a double-digit price when this is done.

Ethereum (ETH) has already plunged below its November lows and is now eyeing further downside. It is possible that we might see some relief near term but things do not look good. The near term outlook still remains quite bearish and the price looks extremely vulnerable. The RSI has now declined below a key trend line support which means that any bullish move from this point forward would be an opportunity to sell or short sell.

The 4H chart for ETH/USD also shows that Ethereum (ETH) has a lot of room to decline further within the descending channel. The next downtrend could easily drag the price down to a double digit price. If Bitcoin (BTC) falls below $3,000 that would create a maximum pain scenario for the altcoin market in which most altcoin projects that have no real use cases might go belly up. This would be painful short term but it would be a favorable development for the market long term because until and unless we have a cleansing like that (which will be followed by regulation), further growth is unlikely in the market.