Bitcoin whales attack sellers at $22.3K as euro drops below USD parity

cointelegraph.com:

Bitcoin (BTC) drifted near $21,000 on the Aug. 22 Wall Street open as the new week began without a rebound.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD failing to summon a comeback after last week’s 11.6% losses.

The pair put in fresh multi-week lows under $20,800 over the weekend, subsequently staging a modest relief bounce to circle $21,200 at the time of writing.

Anxiousness over European markets and the upcoming United States Federal Reserve Jackson Hole symposium contributed to a downbeat mood on risk assets. The S&P 500 lost 1.8% within two hours of opening, while the Nasdaq Composite Index shed 2.2%.

In Europe, gas and electricity prices surged again over fears that supplies from Russia could be throttled harder and sooner than expected.

OOPS! German benchmark electricity price jumped >25% on Monday to pass €700 per megawatt-hour for the first time. The level is about 14 times the seasonal average over the past five years. pic.twitter.com/gMQZkk7ncB

As a result, the euro fell below parity with the U.S. dollar for the first time since July.

“The end of summer sees the euro back under pressure, partly because the dollar is bid and partly because the Damoclean sword hanging over the European economy isn’t going away,” Kit Juckes, a foreign exchange strategist at Societe Generale, wrote in a note quoted by Bloomberg.

As Cointelegraph reported, the euro was already facing multiple headwinds, with inflation in the Eurozone still climbing in July in contrast to the United States.

Analyzing the situation, on-chain analytics resource Material Indicators nonetheless had a silver lining for traders on shorter timeframes.

Related: BTC to lose $21K despite miners’ capitulation exit? 5 things to know in Bitcoin