Dash price explodes 100%, BCH breaks out as Bitcoin cools off below $40K

Bitcoin (BTC) price has once again dropped below the $40,000 level on Jan. 10 after crisscrossing it for the past three days as the spotlight shifted to altcoins, namely Dash (DASH) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The BTC price drop comes after another failure to break through resistance at $41,500 in weekend trading.

One reason for the drop is likely an uptick in selling by miners. As reported yesterday, the Miner's Position Index (MPI) that calculates the ratio of BTC leaving all miner wallets to its 1-year moving average has reached levels where miners are selling. 

Miner Position Index looks enough to make a local top," commented CryptoQuant CEO, Ki Young Ju, right before the price dropped.

"They're selling $BTC. I'm going to punt a small short to scalp $BTC in this short-term bearish market."

Other reasons are largely technical as BTC gives altcoins some time to catch up and due to sentiment. The Crypto Fear and Greed index, for example, has remained at dangerously high levels suggesting that a pullback is likely. In fact, the metric has remained above 90 or "extreme greed" for two months, the longest period in its history. 

Bitcoin Cash follows Ethereum's breakout

Meanwhile, altseason continues with the bullishness apparently shifting from BTC to Bitcoin Cash in Sunday trading. The latter soared from $420 to as high as $630 in the past 24 hours. 

The move marks a technical breakout from a multi-year bear market with BCH/USD now at the highest levels since November 2018.

However, the biggest gainer over the past 24 hours is Dash with its price rising roughly 40%. During the short parabolic rally, DASH surged by over 100% from $95 to as high as $194, only to pull back to the $140 level. 

The move also marks a technical breakout from a multi-year slump as major altcoins are now following in Ethereum's footsteps from last weekend, which several analysts pointed out as the possible start of "altseason."