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Bitcoin prices traded firmly lower early Monday, after the digital currency over the weekend retreated below $7,000.
A single bitcoin BTCUSD, -1.36% last changed hands at $6,971.70, down 0.9% since Sunday 5 p.m. Eastern Time on the Kraken exchange. Since Friday’s high, the No. 1 digital currency has lost $10 billion in value, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
The recent downtrend comes despite recent bullish news that should support optimism in the digital currency.
On Friday, the Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, said it plans to launch a new company that enables “consumers and institutions to buy, sell, store and spend digital assets on a seamless global network,”—a seemingly a positive step for the industry.
As to where the selling is coming from, one U.K. analyst thinks he has the answer. “Despite a widely accepted opinion that the main contributors of the crypto market decrease are the bears amongst the institutional investors, currently it is very likely that it is all about the miners,” wrote Alexander Kuptsikevich, analyst at research firm FxPro. “As the profitability of mining has been reduced by 90% since January 2018, they have disposed [sold] of the mined bitcoins.”
Bitcoin falls below 100-day MA, 50-day at risk
Technically, the outlook for bitcoin remains bleak. After failing at its 200-day moving average, a closely observed momentum indicator, bitcoin has since slumped below its 100-day moving average and is trading precariously close to its 50-day.
After rising more than 30% in the last two weeks of July, bitcoin is on track for an eighth losing session of the past nine.
Futures open much lower Monday
Bitcoin futures have opened Monday well in the red. The Cboe Global Markets Inc. August contract XBTQ8, -6.29% is down 5.9% at $6,960 and the CME Group Inc.’s August contract BTCQ8, -6.04% is down 5.7% at $6,950.
Altcoins, or coins which are alternative to bitcoin, are well off Friday’s closing levels, and have begun Monday trading lower too. Ether ETHUSD, -1.32% is down 0.9% to $406.80, Bitcoin Cash BCHUSD, -3.06% is trading down 2.2%, at $696.10, Litecoin LTCUSD, -1.49% is down 0.8% at $73.92 and Ripple’s XRP XRPUSD, -2.62% is trading 1.7% lower at 43 cents.
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