Investing.com - Cryptocurrencies traded higher Monday, even though its largest member, bitcoin, slid for a third-straight day with losses attributed to increased negative scrutiny of Facebook’s launch of its digital coin Libra.
Total cryptocurrency market capitalization rose to $285.59 billion by 11:26 AM ET (15:26 GMT), compared to $280.79 billion a day earlier.
Bitcoin fell 1.0% to $10,514.1 on the Investing.com Index, Ethereum lost 4.3% to $227.91, XRP gained 1.0% to $0.31607, while Litecoin dropped 1.0% to $90.204.
Bitcoin’s brief drop below the psychological level of $10,000 on Monday brought the digital currency back into the financial media spotlight with most outlets suggesting that losses were sparked by last week’s critique of the sector by U.S. President Donald Trump or an even earlier suggestion by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell that he had “serious concerns” about Facebook’s plans for Libra and recommended they be “thoroughly and publicly addressed”.
Potential reasons aside, the largest digital currency is well known for its volatility and has surged more than 180% this year with the most recent leg of the rally taking it from $7,888 to nearly $14,000 in just the second half of June.
Investing.com analyst Pinchas Cohen dedicated his Chart of the Day to bitcoin and noted that the technical signals were mixed.
“From a technical perspective, while the uptrend since the December 2018 bottom hasn’t ended, its endurance has been questioned, while a couple of indicators suggest prices could keep falling,” he said.
For Cohen, the price to watch for the digital asset is the July 2 low of $9,745.
“To be clear, as long as this level holds, the trend is still firmly up, but investors’ caution about the proximity of that low may become a self-fulfilling prophecy, forcing the price down to form that lower trough for a new downtrend,” he warned.