[DigitalToday reporter Yoonseo Lee] A forecast said bitcoin could slide to the low $40,000s if it breaks below its current support line.

The Crypto Basic, a blockchain outlet, reported on Friday that in that case major altcoins including XRP could face additional downward pressure.

The key zone is $59,000 to $60,000 for bitcoin. Katie Stockton (케이티 스톡턴), founder of crypto analysis firm Fairlead Strategies, said in a CNBC interview that the range is an "important support zone". Bitcoin has tested the area several times in recent weeks and has yet to show a clear rebound trend.

Stockton said bitcoin has already fallen about 30 percent after being blocked by resistance at its 200-day moving average. She said if even the current Fibonacci retracement support breaks, the next major technical support is in the low $40,000s. She warned that additional selling could emerge in the short term.

She did not take a pessimistic view of the long-term outlook. She said she is a long-term bitcoin bull and assessed that bitcoin is entering an oversold condition on a long-term basis. She said past instances of such zones were followed by price stabilisation and strong rebounds.

Market attention is focused on how much a bitcoin decline could spill over to XRP. Bitcoin traded at about $59,000 and XRP at about $1.03. If bitcoin falls from around $60,000 to the low $40,000s, the drop would be roughly 30 to 33 percent. Even if XRP falls by the same rate, its price could decline to around $0.71 to $0.74.

XRP has sometimes posted bigger losses than bitcoin during broad market plunges. In past major capitulation phases, there were cases where XRP fell 1.3 to 1.5 times more than bitcoin, and if that pattern repeats, XRP could retreat to a $0.55 to $0.65 range. That would open the possibility of returning to the $0.50 range, seen as a psychological support line. XRP last traded at that level in 2024.

On a more conservative view, the lower bound for XRP was presented in a $0.70 to $0.95 range. If the market spreads into a stronger capitulation phase, another scenario mentioned was a temporary test of around $0.40.

XRP does not always move by the same magnitude as bitcoin. The correlation between XRP and bitcoin has been weaker than that of other large altcoins, and XRP-specific issues have sometimes moved prices separately. As a result, if bitcoin falls to the low $40,000s, downside risk for XRP would rise, but the actual decline could vary depending on overall market sentiment and XRP-related factors.

The forecast showed in numerical terms how quickly a break in bitcoin support could spread across the altcoin market. It also underlined again that XRP could show greater volatility during sharp market downturns even if it does not fully track bitcoin.