Why is Dogecoin price down today?
Dogecoin is underperforming the crypto market on Feb. 18, down 5.5% in the last 24 hours to trade at $0.2494.What to know:Dogecoin is seeing losses for the third day in a row after bulls failed to sustain the recent recovery to $0.2874.In comparison, the global crypto market capitalization dropped 1.6% to $3.14 trillion.Dogecoin’s downturn today mirrors the panic across the memecoin sector.DOGE’s technicals hint at further declines after key levels were lost.DOGE falls alongside other memecoinsThe bearish sentiment was not only exclusive to Dogecoin as most other memecoins recorded significant losses across the board.Key takeaways:Shiba Inu , the second largest memecoin by market capitalization, was down 5% over the last 24 hours to trade at $0.0000151. Ethereum-based Pepe has dropped by approximately 2.5% over the same period.Solana-based Bonk (BONK) posted the most losses among the top-cap memecoins, dropping by 10% on Feb. 18 to exchange hands at $0.00001551.This bearish performance has wiped out close to $5 billion from the memecoin market over the last 24 hours alone. The total daily trading volume across the memecoin sector has increased by 19% over the same period, indicating intensifying selling pressure over the past 24 hours. The risk-off mode among memecoin investors comes after the recent failure of LIBRA memecoin, associated with Argentine President Javier Milei. Milei is now facing fraud charges and possible impeachment over his involvement in LIBRA.He has since refuted claims that he promoted the controversial memecoin. LIBRA is now more than 95% below its peak of $1.03 reached on Feb. 15.Dogecoin and other memecoins are negatively affected by such “rug-pull” projects, which raise concerns about their legitimacy and their impact on the broader cryptocurrency market. Declining Dogecoin OI and funding rates DOGE’s bearish performance on Feb. 18 has been preceded by a significant decrease in open interest (OI) and low funding rates.Dogecoin’s OI has dropped to $2.3 billion on Feb. 18 from its peak of $5.42 billion from a month ago. The funding rate has flipped positive from -0.0008% on Feb. 16 to 0.0035% over eight hours. But it is far below its December 2024 peak of 0.0980%.The decline in OI and the low funding rate point to a bearish sentiment prevailing in the market. This indicates that Dogecoin traders are either taking a cautious approach or that the overall interest in trading DOGE with high leverage has diminished.DOGE’s price validates bear flag patternDOGE confirmed a bear flag pattern on Feb. 16, when it closed below the lower boundary of the flag at $0.2660. What you should know:DOGE is currently testing the support level at $0.26 at the base of the bear flag, as shown in the chart below.Key resistance levels to watch on the downside are $0.21 and the Feb. 3 low at $0.2038.A high volume move above these support levels could accelerate a sell-off toward the technical target of the prevailing chart pattern at $0.1455.This would represent a 42% decline from the current level.The relative strength index (RSI) is above the midline and has dropped from 42 to 35 over the last three days, indicating an increasing bearish momentum. The RSI’s value of 35 suggests that there is more room for the downside before oversold conditions set in again.Conversely, a daily candlestick close above the lower boundary of the flag at $0.2660 will invalidate the bearish thesis. If this happens, DOGE could likely continue its consolidation within the flag for a few more days.This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.