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The price of the No. 1 digital currency rose Monday, as bitcoin looked to claw back some losses from the previous week, which took its price from above $8,000 to below $6,500.
The selling pressure into the weekend formed the much-talked-about “death cross,” a chart formation where the 50-day moving average crosses below the 200-day moving average. The indicator is generally regarded as a negative signal, with short-term price momentum now below long-term trends.
However, the price of bitcoin BTCUSD, +0.58% has risen sharply since forming the so-called death cross, suggesting the anticipation of the cross may have caused a bear trap, with those betting for further declines caught off guard as the asset pitched higher. Furthermore, bitcoin is at its most oversold level on a relative-strength-index basis, or RSI, since trading below $6,000 on Feb. 6, technical analysts say.
Read: Here’s how brutal the first quarter was for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
A single bitcoin was last exchanged at $6,986.04, up 2.5% on the day and more than $500 above its weekend low of $6,456.05.
Air Asia goes digital
Malaysia-based Air Asia AIRASIA, -0.76% announced its frequent-flier program would be converted to a digital-currency platform called BigCoin, where customers can purchase meals, seat upgrades and other services.
The company’s CEO, Tony Fernandes, told the Nikkei Review that the move was part of a bigger plan to “take cash off the planes.”
Fernandes said the company plans to do an initial coin offering at some point, but no timeline was discussed.
Read: United Airlines scraps bonus lottery plan after employee revolt
Other markets
Other digital currencies began the week in the green. Ether looked to regain the $400 level, last trading at $384.55, up 1.3%; bitcoin cash was up 4.1% at $669.81; Litecoin rose 3% and last traded at $118.53; and Ripple was up 2% at 50 cents.
Bucking the trend, bitcoin futures markets ended in the red Monday. The Cboe’s April contract XBTJ8, +0.79% closed down 3.5% at $6,985 and the CME Group Inc. April contract BTCJ8, +0.57% finished the day off 4.7% at $6,990.
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