Down 20% from its latest peak, the S&P 500 now meets the definition of bear market territory in a warning sign for risk assets everywhere.
Bitcoin (BTC) struggled to recover its latest losses on May 21 after Wall Street trading provided zero respite.
BTC price reflects drab stocks performance
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD trading at dipping below $28,700 into the weekend, subsequently adding around $500.
Down 4.7% from the previous day’s $30,700 highs, the pair looked firmly rangebound at the time of writing after United States stocks indices saw a volatile final trading day of the week.
The S&P 500, managed to reverse after initially falling at the open, nonetheless confirmed bear market tendencies, trading at 20% below its highs from last year.
The S&P 500 has officially entered a bear market pic.twitter.com/N1lrcBdziT
— Fintwit (@fintwit_news) May 20, 2022
“Another wacky day in the stock market. Dow Jones -500 early in the day, then recovers it all and closes +8,” popular Twitter account Blockchain Backers commented about broader U.S. market performance.
As Cointelegraph reported, various sources had called for Bitcoin to fall once again in a manner similar to last week’s capitulation event.
Continuing the conservative macro outlook, fellow Twitter commentator PlanC argued that external shifts could still bring Bitcoin down significantly from current levels.
“If the Crypto market was in a bubble I would say 25k to 27.5k is the Bitcoin bottom, but there is a decent probability that macro factors drag us down to 22-24k. Significant black swan, 15-20k becomes a possibility,” part of a tweet on the day read.
Beyond stocks, the U.S. dollar index (DXY) was consolidating after a strong retracement from twenty-year highs.
May competes with 2021 for worst on record
With ten days left until the end of the month, BTC/USD risked May 2022 being the worst in terms of returns in its history.
Related:Â Bitcoin must defend these price levels to avoid ‘much deeper’ fall: Analysis
Data from on-chain analytics resource Coinglass showed month-to-date returns currently totaling -22% for Bitcoin, the largest retreat of any year except 2021’s -35%.
2022, the collective figures confirmed, was also the worst performing first five months of the year for Bitcoin since 2018.
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