Bitcoin price still testing $10,000 support as CME futures expiration approaches

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price is currently still testing support above the $10,000 psychological barrier as the futures expiration date approaches on Friday.

Bitcoin price analysis

Fresh data from CoinMarketCap shows a fresh dip for the BTC/USD trading pair over the past 24 hours as the markets dipped from highs of $10,400 to around $10,100.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is down by 6% and changing hands at $10,184.42. Crypto analysts and commentators expect that Friday’s CME futures expiration will affect the markets. Twitter user “Skew” states that the deadline will see close to 50% of open interest expire.

Historically, futures expiration dates tend to ignite volatility for Bitcoin, but different events have behaved in different ways. However, Skew suggests that sentiments among investors this time around are more bearish.

He stated:

“Some of those positions will be rolled but overall institutional investors have been looking elsewhere in August!”

Several other commentators cited the connection between futures and market activity.

All that being said, Bitcoin’s robust network data serves as a reminder that the OG crypto is an increasingly safe bet. As per data from Forbes, the overall market volatility dropped to an eight-week low earlier this week.

Altcoin markets continue to endure sideways trading

The altcoin markets on the other end have seen yet another day of minor losses. As the BTC/USD pair dipped, so did several major tokens. Binance Coin (BNB) suffered the worst after dropping by 5.7%.

Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap dropped by 2.6% and is trading at $186.87, XRP is down by 0.34% and trading at $0.267254 and Litecoin (LTC) is down by 0.48% and trading at $72.82.

Bitcoin SV (BSV) is down by 4.4% which is a moderate loss if one considers concerns that the altcoin might suffer as a result of Craig Wright losing a $5 billion court case earlier this week.

At the time of writing of the cryptocurrency market cap is sitting at $264,586,461,033 with Bitcoin dominating 68.9% of the total market share. Be sure to check in again at 14:00 for your top ten cryptocurrency news roundup and prices.