Is this the correction Bitcoin sideliners have been waiting for?

The market valuation of bitcoin rose more than 190 percent since the low of Dec. 15, 2018, raising the question when the retrace will come and how pronounced it will be.

The bear market may have come to an end after a year-long period of declining prices that took bitcoin from $20,000 down to $3,000.

Even though there is no direct correlation between the price of bitcoin and the number of confirmed transactions, their trend has been similar.

Corrections in a bull marketIn a bull run, a short-lived correction or decline in the price of bitcoin can happen anytime a peak or significant resistance level is reached.

Since the low of Aug. 25, 2015, when bitcoin was trading at $198 its price began increasing to reach an all-time high of $19,760 on Dec. 17, 2018.There were eight significant exhaustion points that marked the 2015-2017 bitcoin's bull market.

An all-time high was achieved on Jan. 4, 2017, when bitcoin was valued at $1,180 and was followed by a 36.50 percent drop.

Two months after the milestone, bitcoin hit a new all-time high of $1,320 on Mar. 8, to then fall 32.57 percent.

A similar pattern happened after the high of Sept. 1 and Nov. 6 that saw bitcoin drop 40.12 and 30.09 percent respectively.

Bitcoin technical analysisOn the 1-week chart, a doji candlestick pattern formed last week could have indicated the beginning of a correction, according to Peter Brandt.

If the signal is validated, bitcoin could drop down to the 50-week moving average which will represent a 37.20 percent drop, but first, it will have to break through the support given by the 100-week moving average.