3 Bitcoin Price Factors That Suggest Bears Are in Charge

The prospect of a deeper drop in bitcoin prices has increased, price-volume analysis indicates.

The world's most valuable cryptocurrency, which had been trading sideways since September 22, fell sharply to a three-week low of $6,220 on Bitfinex yesterday, confirming a range breakdown.

The technical indicators on the daily chart also turned bearish, validating a negative moving average crossover on the long duration charts.

As seen in the chart above, BTC witnessed a Bollinger band breakdown yesterday and also penetrated the support of the trendline drawn between the June 24 low and Aug. 11 low.

Trading volumes on Bitfinex jumped to five-week highs yesterday.

Total trading volume across all cryptocurrency exchanges rose 36 percent to $5.18 billion - the highest level since Sept. 21 - according to CoinMarketCap.

The high-volume drop was accompanied by a 10-percent drop in BTC/USD long positions and a 7.4 percent rise in BTC/USD short positions on Bitfinex.

A break below key support, when accompanied by an unwinding of long positions and a rise in short positions, indicates scope for a deeper sell-off.

View BTC's fall below $6,300 kick-started a bearish move toward $6,000 yesterday.

The probability of a drop to $6,000 has increased in the last 24 hours as the range breakdown was backed by a pick-up in trading volumes, as well as a rise in shorts and a drop in longs.