Bitcoin eased from session highs Monday amid profit taking following its rebound from a nearly two-month low a day earlier.
Bitcoin rose 3.13% to $6,986.8 on the Bitfinex exchange, easing from a session high of $7,132.0. Bitcoin rebounded from a low of $6,432.40 on Sunday, just shy of its Feb. 6 low of $6,000 which followed the so-called crypto bloodbath.
Yet, investors remained wary of yet another bull trap in bitcoin. A term describing a false signal indicating that a downward trend in a security has reversed and is heading upwards when, in fact, the security will continue to decline.
The slump in bitcoin over the weekend was predicted by some technical analysts, who last week cited a bearish trading pattern, the “death cross,” as a signal of further downside.
It remains to be seen whether further downside pressure awaits the popular digital currency amid recent comments from technical traders, citing current prices in bitcoin as a zone of support - price levels that trigger buying.
There is lack of evidence, however, to support the view that current prices would attract fund inflows into the market as demand remained subdued.
Data from coinmarketcap.com showed the total market cap of cryptocurrencies fell to $262 billion – at the time of writing – down from just under $300 million last week – and more than 300% down from the more than $800 billion at the turn of the year.
The slump in the wider crypto market so far this year has weighed on crypto-funds with at least nine funds said to have closed, Bloomberg reported.
Crypto-funds are down roughly 23% in 2018, according to Eurekahedge Crypto-Currency Hedge Fund Index, easing investor euphoria which followed a more than 1,000% gain at some crypto-funds last year.
Ripple XRP rose 2.04% to $0.48980 on the Poloniex exchange, while Ethereum rose 0.13% to $384.02.