Bitcoin Falls Below $47K, Market Sentiment Swings To 'Extreme Fear'

Bitcoin fell below $47,000, an important support line and reached as low as $45,672 on Binance, the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, on Monday. The fall has further dampened sentiment as investors were eyeing this support level, hoping the king would bounce back and breach the $53,000-level resistance.

Data from CoinMarketCap showed that as of 11:07 p.m. ET, the price of 1 Bitcoin was $47061.37, 0.78% up from $46,702, which was Monday's close. The daily high for Monday was $50,189 as the bulls valiantly attempted -- and failed to -- swim against the tide and breach the $53,000 price level.

That failure has weighed on sentiment, with the daily candle for Tuesday reaching a high of $47,226, with the low at $46,290. The market cap of BTC fell 3.72% in the last 24-hours and is currently at $892 billion, with a market dominance of 41.64%.

The Fear & Greed index at Alternative.me swung to 'Extreme Fear' from 'Fear' a day earlier and investors are worried for their money. The hammering from major regulators and governments that cryptocurrencies and the exchanges have taken in the last few weeks has not helped either.

But, importantly, the number of addresses holding Bitcoin is on the rise after touching a low of 39,510,191 on Dec 9. The number is now at 39,770,713. Also, the top 10 hodlers of BTC hold nearly 5.11% of the entire supply, while the top 100 are sitting on 13.24% of the total supply.

To compare, just a day earlier, the top 10 holders owned 5.1% while the top 100 owned 13.15%. The data could indicate that these addresses have been actively buying Bitcoin. Michael Saylor, who is the CEO MicroStrategy, which is one of the biggest holders of Bitcoin, had said earlier this year that BTC will reach the $100 trillion market cap soon — an expectation that could be driving the accumulation.

Volatility is a part of the crypto market. Bitcoin is currently 31.49% down from its all-time high touched on Nov. 10 and up by nearly 60% from its $29,286 price on Jan. 1. To put the current drop in perspective, BTC was at $19,497 on Dec. 16, 2017, but by Feb. 11, 2018, it had taken a massive tumble to below $8,300, more than halving its value.

The current drop can be seen as a significant correction, when viewed in terms of Bitcoin's historical prices. Binance CEO Changpang "CZ" Zhao underscored that when he tweeted that BTC is still in a bull run since 2009, supporting the claims of Plan Marcus, a Twitter user who runs a Bitcoin full node.