Bitcoin price bounces 4% as triple ‘death cross’ sparks sub-$50K warning

BTC price weakness sees negative funding rates and a distinctly risk-off mood among Bitcoin traders.

Bitcoin rebounded past $58,000 on Aug. 16 after a “sweeping masterclass” cost both bulls and bears.

BTC price targets retain trip below $50,000

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView confirmed a 4.4% Bitcoin (BTC) price recovery from lows of $56,150 the day prior.

Coming on the back of the latest United States unemployment data, the dip posed problems for casual traders, with both buyers and sellers seeing liquidations.

The action was captured by order book liquidity data from monitoring resource CoinGlass. In the 24 hours to the time of writing, total BTC long and short liquidations stood at around $75 million.

“Bitcoin Sweeping masterclass today,” popular trader Daan Crypto Trades reacted in a post on X.

Fellow trader CrypNuevo likewise flagged a tap of range lows for BTC/USD, keeping the pair in a familiar intraday channel.

Before the sweep, trading resource Material Indicators had flagged another “death cross,” this time of four-hour timeframes — an event which it said would help the market establish reliable longer-term support.

“The good news is, one way or another this has the potential to help the market validate a bottom for Bitcoin…or possibly create a new one,” part of X commentary stated.

At the same time, co-founder Keith Alan suggested the potential for a much stronger BTC price downside — potentially taking the market not only back to six-month lows seen at the start of August but to a rising trendline currently at around $45,000.

As Cointelegraph reported, bulls are already contending with two “death crosses” on daily timeframes.

Bitcoin funding rates dip to 10-month lows

Looking at derivatives markets, onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant noted a rare occurrence over the past year.

Related: US gov’t Bitcoin sale ‘doesn’t affect anything’ as analyst blames bears

Funding rates, contributor EgyHash noted, were at their most negative in nearly a year.

“The funding rates of Bitcoin on Binance have been negative for the third consecutive day, reaching levels not seen since October 2023. The average Bitcoin funding rate indicator that counts the funding rates on all exchanges is now also negative,” he wrote in a Quicktake blog post on Aug. 16.

“This means that short positions are now dominating the perpetual market.”

Negative funding rates can reflect spoiling market sentiment but also lay the foundations for a “squeeze” of short positions when broad sentiment calls for further price downside.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.