Early on Thursday, Hedera (HBAR) is experiencing somewhat of a downslide after registering some gains over the past few sessions, with investors selling off cryptocurrencies after leaders Bitcoin and Ethereum saw sharp declines. At the time of writing, HBAR/USD is trading at around $0.274.

The crypto market has been trading in the red for several sessions now and the bearish mood has strengthened over several disappointing news reports, including Kazakhstan’s internet blackout amid raging protest against the government for the steep increase in fuel prices. As the second largest country involved in Bitcoin mining, the internet disruption has hurt mining activity and sent Bitcoin prices lower. In addition, news reports about the US Congress getting ready to examine the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies, especially to PoW Bitcoin, have also soured the sentiment and sent most digital currencies lower.

As the market leader, moves in Bitcoin often dictate the sentiment of investors and other digital assets including Hedera mimic these moves. In the absence of significant fundamental developments, moves in HBAR are likely to be driven by the market sentiment in the near term.

Meanwhile, in the long term, the future does look promising for Hedera, especially as more dApps launch around the world and developers look for decentralized ecosystems that offer higher transaction processing speeds, energy efficiency and lower transaction costs. The Hedera Hashgraph is one of the most promising technologies to run Web 3 applications and can see an uptick in metaverse-related projects as well in the coming months, which could keep HBAR supported.

According to popular crypto influencer David Gokhstein, Hedera is one among eight cryptocurrencies that could perform really well this year. After rising by 10 times through 2021, its developers remain optimistic that its adoption is set to rise in the long term, making HBAR a promising crypto to HODL.

HBAR/USD Technical Analysis

Hedera also features among Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary’s crypto portfolio, along with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Polygon. He remains optimistic about the potential for innovation in his digital asset investments, which could signal bullish times ahead for the HBAR token.

Technical analysis of the H4 price chart points to a strong bearish bias among moving averages and leading technical indicators MACD and momentum. This points to more downside in the near term in HBAR.

Hedera’s price sits under the pivot point at $0.30 and has also fallen below the first support at $0.28. The next level which could be tested if selling pressure builds up is the second support at $0.25, so let’s keep an eye on it.