Bitcoin prices edged lower on Friday, putting BTC/USD on track to paring a portion of its recent gains after notching a lifetime record high.
Futures tied to Bitcoin slipped 0.67 percent to $47,480, pointing to a short-term negative sentiment among institutional investors. Meanwhile, spot BTC/USD was down 2.3 percent to $46,895, showing a similar downside bias among retail traders.
In the earlier sessions, Bitcoin notched a record high just shy of $49,000. The local top prompted daytraders to secure their short-term profits which might have played a primary role in the cryptocurrency’s decline on Friday. Nevertheless, bulls also grappled with a sequence of pessimistic events around the globe.
At first, Nigeria, the world’s second-largest market for cryptocurrencies after the United States, banned the trading of cryptocurrencies. The news entered the wire on Wednesday but went unnoticed due to positive events in the US.
Nevertheless, when reports about India, the world’s sixth-largest economy, taking a similar step against Bitcoin surfaced, it largely coincided with a modest decline in its prices Friday.
Arguments about Bitcoin’s long-term bullish bias stayed active despite the regulatory setbacks in India and Nigeria. Many analysts agreed that the cryptocurrency is on its way to test $50,000 as its upside target. And, if the prevailing euphoria sustains, it could reach $65,000 as well.
The upside sentiments took cues from a flurry of events that took place this. At first, Tesla revealed in its securities filing that it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin in January. Later, Twitter CFO Ned Segal stated that he is open to buying Bitcoin if the social media giant’s employees and vendors demand salaries/payments in it.
Moving ahead, US bank BNY Mellon announced that it would offer bitcoin custodian services via the same platform its clients use to manage traditional securities and cash. On Friday, singer JayZ and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced a 500 BTC endowment fund to help Bitcoin developers.\
“Considering the bullish pressure and institutional and the ongoing corporate demand for Bitcoin, we expect BTC/USD to capitalize above $48,000 by this weekend or next week,”
Konstantin Anissimov, Executive Director at CEX.IO, told CoinChapter via email.
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Here is the top crypto news of the day curated by CoinChapter.com.