Major coins traded in the red on Wednesday after an alarming U.K. inflation report and a significant sell order on Binance.

What Happened: Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization, experienced a dip during the early hours of Wednesday, dropping below $30,000 for the second time in just three days. Soon after, it plunged below the $29,000 mark for the first time in over a week.

At the time of writing, the global crypto market capitalization stood at $1.21 trillion, down over 4.91% over the last day. 

U.S. stock market concluded Wednesday with a calm performance, as investors took time to analyze significant earnings reported by major players such as Netflix and Morgan Stanley. The S&P 500 index registered a minimal decline of 0.01%, while the Nasdaq Composite managed a slight gain of 0.03%.

See More: Best Crypto Day Trading Strategies

News Highlights: Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) has been granted a license to operate in Bermuda and is reportedly poised to launch a new derivatives exchange based in the country as early as next week. 

Analyst Notes: Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA said, “Bitcoin plunged earlier in Europe as some crypto investors decided to dump large positions before NY got to their trading desks. ​ The 3% Bitcoin drop occurred shortly after 4 a.m. EST, which means they wanted to do it before the next round of earnings and after a hot UK inflation report.”

Moya added, “There are some clear signs of exhaustion with the growth of the global crypto market cap and if we are looking at a consolidation period, this seemed like a good time to get out. Bitcoin is holding onto the $29,000 level, but if downward pressure continues support does not emerge until the $28,550 region.”

Benjamin Cowen, a prominent cryptocurrency expert, in a YouTube video, asserted that Bitcoin reigns supreme over most altcoins as an investment asset. He said, “Altcoins generally perform worse than Bitcoin in both bear and recovery markets.” Cowen notes that “altcoins seem to be in a perpetual macro downtrend when compared to Bitcoin.”

Crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe has pinpointed two critical levels that Bitcoin needs to break in the coming days. Firstly, breaking above $29,300 will trigger shorts to get liquidated. And secondly, the price needs to go up to $29,700 to get back in the range. 

A prominent crypto trader who goes by the pseudonym @52kskew highlighted that a massive sell order of 16,000 Bitcoin, worth over $467 million, was executed on Binance just before the price drop. This sell order might have kickstarted the “long squeeze” and caused the subsequent price drop. 

Read Next: Jim Cramer Advises Against Using Binance, Provokes Strong Reactions From Twitter Users