Bitcoin’s decline continued Wednesday (Feb. 26) as it fell below the mark investors were looking at as a key line of support.
Bitcoin fell below $9,000 Wednesday and losses were at around 9 percent total for the week. Investors think the coin is “in trouble,” according to a report by Bloomberg.
The cryptocurrency was trading at around $8,795 as of 11:43 a.m. in New York.
Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda Corp in New York, was troubled by the proceedings, saying that the broad relief rally on Wednesday wouldn’t be enough to offset the fact that the entire crypto market is selling off, with the “market carnage” of the past few days having detrimental effects on the coin’s value.
But other measures point to support still existing out there: the Bollinger Band Indicator, a measure of volatility, has bitcoin at a close point to breaching the lower limit. That has traditionally led to a reversion in the mean, which could bring the coin up to the $9,700 level or so.
A rigorous bout of equity market selling quieted many of the arguments about the largest digital token’s sanctuary during times of crisis. Famed investor Warren Buffett added fuel to that fire when he said this week that cryptocurrencies “basically have no value.”
The sell-off on Wednesday had worse effects for other currencies, such as Bitcoin Cash, Dash, EOS and Ether, which each fell more than 10 percent in value, and the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index fell almost 10 percent, marking its lowest drop since last fall.
Bitcoin prices have fallen since last year, and trading activity has seen a slowdown over the previous few months. An unfortunate spike, however, has been in crime, as criminal activity involving bitcoin rounded up to a full 1 percent of its use in transactions, per published reports. That can include things like bitcoin-backed drug sales, up 60 percent on the dark web, and ransomware cyberattacks.