Cryptocurrencies extended losses into the weekend after Jerome Powell warned against prematurely loosening policy, with Bitcoin dipping below the bottom end of the narrow range that it has traded in the past two weeks.

“Powell’s admission that there will be pain before there is relief is rather hawkish,” said Josh Olszewicz, head of research at digital asset fund manager Valkyrie Investments.

The largest cryptocurrency by market shed as much as 4% to $19,833 on Saturday as of 11:43 a.m. in New York, dipping below $20,000 for the first time since July 14 and extending its rout this year to 57%. It has traded in a range between that level and about $22,000 for the past week. 

Ether slid as much as 6.4% to $1,456. Solana and Avalanche fared worse, dropping as much as 6.4% and 7.2%.

Even so, some analysts say that the recent trading pattern presents a buying opportunity: 

• Onchain metrics “signal that the price is at the accumulation zone, which has been historically market bottom formations and value investing,” CryptoQuant said in a report Thursday.
• “Friday’s break looks important and negative in the short run but should line up with buying opportunities into early September as cycles remain bullish and project higher prices into November 2022,” Mark Newton, technical strategist at Fundstrat, said in a note Friday.

Powell, the Federal Reserve chairman, signaled the US central bank is likely to keep raising interest rates and leave them elevated for a while to stamp out inflation, and he pushed back against any idea that the Fed would soon reverse course. Low rates are seen as one of the catalysts for pushing investor into crypto during the Covid lockdowns.

Crypto investors beware: Experts say there could be at least one more big crypto crash on the horizon.

Though bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been trending up in recent days, the crypto market isn’t out of the danger zone yet. The two largest cryptos — bitcoin and ethereum — are still sitting nearly 50% below their all-time highs in November. 

In fact, bitcoin has fallen below $20,000 several times in recent weeks, a price point that remains pivotal as experts debate whether it will see further declines akin to 2013 and 2017, when it tumbled 85% below its high. Ethereum, the second most valuable digital currency, has seen more gains than bitcoin over the last few days and was trading above $1,500 on Tuesday.

The crypto market could still experience one more drastic sell-off before it’s on the road to recovery, says Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at brokerage firm OANDA — with bitcoin dropping close to $10,000. He says the next two weeks will help determine whether bitcoin’s price has bottomed out yet. Ethereum is still at risk of falling as low as $750, an additional 50% decrease from the current price, says crypto expert Wendy O.

“We’re in a full-blown bear market, not a bear cycle. Just because we see some positive price action doesn’t mean we’re out of the clear,” O says. “We’re currently trading at $1,500 [for ethereum], and in order for me to be super bullish on ethereum, I would need to see us break above $2,248. That’s a 50% price pump right there.