The cryptocurrency market has lost more than $40 billion over the last week, with bitcoin (BTC) dropping below $7,000 for the first time since May, data platform CoinMarketCap shows.
What Happened
The crypto market has been experiencing a downtrend over the last week, with major cryptocurrencies being in the red. Bitcoin has dropped to $6,930, losing more than 20% in the last seven days. Ethereum, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, dropped to $136 Monday morning, the lowest point since April, and reached $148 at about 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
[CFO.com editor’s note: Bitcoin rebounded to $7,120 on Tuesday.]
“Hodl?”
Analysts in the crypto space, famous for their “hodl,” or not shorting digital assets, philosophy believe that the downtrend might continue.
Peter Brandt, an analyst and author of books on trading, thinks that the BTC price might still go down.
I actually do not think this is a valid H&S top, but one never really knows until history is written. $BTC pic.twitter.com/5cHTUb0qHf
— Peter Brandt (@PeterLBrandt) November 25, 2019
CNBC’s Brian Kelly called it “an important low” commenting on bitcoin price movement on Friday at FastMoney CNBC. He believes that growth in bitcoin addresses by 5% over the previous 30 days is a good sign and that “the fundamentals are improving on a selloff.”
Bitcoin breakdown? The cryptocurrency just dropped 15% in a week. Here’s what @BKBrianKelly thinks of the move. pic.twitter.com/n9kHpRrYDN
— CNBC’s Fast Money (@CNBCFastMoney) November 22, 2019
Charles Hoskinson, a co-founder of Ethereum, believes that the price of the leading cryptocurrency will reach $10,000 again and even $100,000, not specifying the time frame for his predictions.
Bitcoin’s price is going down? Remember everyone, after the FUD, news trading and manipulation clears out, we still have a global movement that’s going to change the world. We will see 10k btc again and welcome 100k. Crypto is unstoppable. Crypto is the future pic.twitter.com/9vlgH4S7u2
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) November 22, 2019
But Why?
There are different speculations over the reasons behind the recent fall. Bloomberg reported Monday that China’s recent decision on cryptocurrency operations might be the cause of the downtrend.
Oliver Renick, lead anchor at TD Ameritrade Network, thinks that prices are down because people are starting to realize they “don’t need bitcoin.”
But historically, as the director of research at crypto publication the Block, Larry Cermak, pointed out, price spikes in the crypto space are “not related to any particular event or trend.”
This story originally appeared on Benzinga.
© 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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