BTC Price Target Expands to $18,000 With further influence from SVB Financial, Bitcoin bulls are increasingly unable to hold $20,000 as support.

Bitcoin $20,465

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) struggled to reclaim $20,000 support at the Wall Street open on March 10 as fears of contagion intensified.

BTC price target is $18,000

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it pared fresh losses, hitting $19,569 on Bitstamp.

The pair fell further ahead of the open as shares of troubled SVB Financial plunged another 60%.

In a move mimicking the cryptocurrency exchange’s banking partner Silvergate, SVB also began a ripple effect with non-U.S. banks that day.

For Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe, founder and CEO of trading firm Eight, things were already looking bad.

"First it was Silvergate, then Silicon Valley Bank, now First Republic Bank. All of these are sinking heavily in the market. It's 2008 all over again," he concluded.

As a result, U.S. stocks began the March 10 trading day with a fall as nervous traders waited to see the full extent of the SVB contagion.

“Silvergate and Silicon Valley appear to have invested in low-yielding Treasuries prior to the Fed tightening cycle… No one wants to buy ‘risk-free’ Treasuries directly from the government right now,” said part of the commentary from trader and analyst Scott Melker.

"They were forced to sell at deep discounts, incurring huge losses. This further shook market confidence, leading to more withdrawals and resulting in insolvency."

Melker said the setup is a "slippery slope."

Meanwhile, in terms of BTC price action, van de Poppe sees potential long entry as low as $18,000. On the other hand, moving above $20,000 is now a short-lived opportunity.

Commentators see increasing pressure on Fed to pivot

There was a glimmer of hope from what market commentator Holger Zschaepitz called “mixed” U.S. jobs data, which helped ease concerns about a major shift in Federal Reserve policy.

Related: Why Did the Bitcoin Price Drop Today?

“After today’s jobs data, traders now expect the Fed to raise rates by 25 basis points in March. Previously, 50 basis points was priced in.

Data from CME Group’s FedWatch tool confirmed a shift in market expectations for the upcoming March 22 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.

For some, however, the severity of the SVB crisis gave them reason to believe that the Fed had no choice but to abandon monetary tightening and “pivot” toward rate hikes.

"SVB is dealing with a full-blown bank run. The bad news is this will quickly accelerate into a systemic crisis," cryptocurrency entrepreneur David Bailey responded.

He added: “The good news is that the Fed will have no choice but to adjust policy immediately or risk the collapse of the entire financial system.”

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