Bitcoin fell for the first time in seven days as speculators sought a respite following the recent rally that pushed the largest cryptocurrency beyond $50,000 for the first time in more than two years.
“Bitcoin has gained 10% over the last five trading sessions and 15% the last month,” said Teong Hng, chief executive at the Hong Kong-based crypto investments firm Satori Research. “Hence speculators are taking some chips off the table.
“I expect the correction to be shallow, and $45,000 to provide solid support for BTC.”
The original digital asset fell as much as 2.8% to $48,450 on Tuesday, and is still up around 16% this year.
The latest rally has been driven by optimism that last month’s US approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) is leading to greater mainstream acceptance.
“There is some profit taking. 50k is a significant number psychologically, and traders are still trying to divine how the ETF approvals will play out,” said Michael Safai, founding partner at the quantitative trading firm Dexterity Capital.
Nine US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds made their debut on Jan 11, while the more than decade-old Grayscale Bitcoin Trust converted into an ETF the same day.
The accessibility of ETFs promises to widen the investor base for the token. The new funds have attracted in excess of $9 billion so far, while a more than $6 billion outflow from the Grayscale fund since its conversion appears to be losing steam