{"id":251505,"date":"2018-06-14T07:55:09","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T05:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=251505"},"modified":"2018-06-14T07:55:09","modified_gmt":"2018-06-14T05:55:09","slug":"things-have-changed-for-bitcoin-and-its-not-good-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/251505\/things-have-changed-for-bitcoin-and-its-not-good-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Things have changed for Bitcoin and its not good news"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bitcoin extended losses, bringing its four-session slide to almost 20%, as questions mount about whether the world\u2019s biggest cryptocurrency was manipulated during last year\u2019s record price surge.<\/p>\n

After rallying more than 1,400% in 2017 amid an investor frenzy for digital assets, Bitcoin is down almost 70% from its record high of $19,511 set in December. The digital coin has closed below its 50-, 100- and 200-day moving averages for the past 16 days, the longest stretch below those support levels this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings have changed for Bitcoin and the crypto space,\u201d said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at online trading firm Oanda Corp in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere doesn\u2019t seem to be as much hype, or positive news. Every time we get a negative news story now – after a period of consolidation – we don\u2019t see bullish sentiment come in to support it. It\u2019s almost as if people are waiting to sell it.”<\/p>\n

The virtual currency has struggled to reverse a selloff that coincides with negative news, most recently a study of possible price manipulation using the Tether coin.<\/p>\n

Bloomberg News reported in May that the Justice Department opened up a criminal probe into illegal trading practices that can manipulate the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.<\/p>\n

Tether, one of the most-traded cryptocurrencies, shows a pattern of being spent on Bitcoin at pivotal moments, helping to drive the world\u2019s first digital asset to a record price in December, according to research by a University of Texas professor known for flagging suspicious activity in the VIX benchmark.<\/p>\n

Questions about Tether and Bitfinex have dogged the cryptocurrency world since last year when Bitfinex lost banking relationships yet continued to operate.<\/p>\n

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission subpoenaed both firms in December, seeking proof that Tether is backed by a reserve of US dollars, as it claims. Tether and Bitfinex haven\u2019t been accused of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

In other technical measures, Bitcoin\u2019s relative-strength index has fallen below 30, a level often used in equities and some other asset classes as indicating oversold.<\/p>\n

It typically rises, snapping back above 30, in a matter of days, according to a five-year analysis.<\/p>\n

Many of Bitcoin\u2019s closest peers have also tumbled. Ethereum, the No. 2 coin by market value, and No. 3 Ripple have both dropped more than 20% over the past four days.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire crypto space seems to be taking the hit now,\u201d Erlam said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Bitcoin, $6,000 seems to be a support level now. If I\u2019m bearish, I\u2019m desperate to see it break below $6,000.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Read: Bitcoin sinks below $7,000 after cryptocurrency exchange hack in South Korea<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin extended losses, bringing its four-session slide to almost 20%, as questions mount about whether the world\u2019s biggest cryptocurrency was manipulated during last year\u2019s record price surge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":230909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[5537],"class_list":["post-251505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-bitcoin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251505"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251513,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251505\/revisions\/251513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}