Bitcoin’s (BTC) fell below critical $44,000 support on Monday as concerns over China spilled over into crypto markets.

BTC’s price sinks through support

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD shedding 2% in an hour to hit local lows of around $43,400.

The pair had struggled overnight into the new week, as stocks fell in step with renewed worries over the fate of Chinese property giant Evergrande.

Amid a general shift away from risk assets, there were few winners beyond the United States dollar on the day.

For Bitcoin analysts, however, the drop was still not worth focusing on, as broad market strength remained.

“This BTC dip isn’t extreme,” trader and analyst Rekt Capital reacted on Twitter.

“Your emotional reaction to it shouldn’t be extreme either.”

Others were more surprised by the extent of Bitcoin’s knee-jerk losses.

Ngl was kinda surprised to see BTC nuking while the funding was consistently at a discount and futures at backwardation. No indicator is perfect.
I guess the narrative was that whales were hedging excessively during the weekend in anticipation of tradi nuking when Monday opens

— Squeeze (@cryptoSqueeze) September 20, 2021

Nonetheless, $44,000 had been the first significant buyer support level, this failing to put the brakes on Bitcoin’s slide.

A look at buy and sell levels on major exchange Binance thus highlighted levels closer to $40,000 as the next band of buyer interest.

Ether revisits $3,000 in altcoin rout

Altcoins, meanwhile, beat Bitcoin to daily losses of over 10% for the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. 

Related: ‘Best bear market ever’ — 5 things to watch in Bitcoin this week

Ether (ETH) was challenging $3,000 support at the time of writing, while XRP was the worst performer, down 14% on the day.