Bitcoin
and other cryptocurrencies fell back Thursday, extending declines for a sixth day despite widespread advances seen in other risk-sensitive assets, with gains from a recent bullish trend fizzling out as cryptos returned to familiar trading ranges.
The price of Bitcoin has fallen 1.5% over the past 24 hours to below $26,750, with the largest digital asset hitting its lowest levels so far this month, having retreated from levels near $28,000 held as recently as last weekend.
A return to the $26,000 zone is a grim move for Bitcoin, which spent more than a month stagnating in this range as historically low volatility and trading volumes saw investor interest wane. The late-September rally up to around $28,500 had spurred calls of a new bullish streak with the psychologically important $30,000 level in view.
Bitcoin has been trading in opposition to the stock market, where the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
and
S&P 500
have seen four straight days of gains. Some analysts say that crypto traders are positioning more conservatively for how fresh conflict in the Middle East could ultimately dent demand for the riskiest assets—but another possibility is that Bitcoin has just got boring again.
U.S. consumer-price index (CPI) inflation data due Thursday may be a catalyst for Bitcoin to go back above $27,000, but it could also firmly lodge the token in the sticky $26,000 level as Bitcoin has seemed impervious to recent macroeconomic moves. Hopes that the Federal Reserve will not have to raise interest rates again in its battle against inflation have buoyed stocks this week, but not cryptos even though higher borrowing costs tend to dent demand for risk assets broadly.
Beyond Bitcoin,
Ether
—the second-largest crypto—shed 1% to $1,550. Smaller tokens or altcoins were also in the red, with
Cardano
down less than 1% and
Polygon
slipping 2%. Memecoins were unspared, with
Dogecoin
and
Shiba Inu
each shedding about 1%.
Write to Jack Denton at [email protected]
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