The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has fallen back below the key threshold of $90,000 U.S. as the cryptocurrency sector’s troubles continue.
Bitcoin is trading at $89,600 U.S. early on Dec. 15 after the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization endured more selling pressure over the weekend.
The price of Bitcoin had risen as high as $94,000 U.S. over the past week but failed to hold that level and is once again in decline.
Analysts say Bitcoin’s struggles show that investors remain nervous heading into year end and that they continue to move away from riskier asset classes such as crypto.
BTC is now 29% below its record high of $126,300 U.S. reached in early October of this year.
Other well-known digital assets such as XRP (XRP) and Ethereum (ETH) also continue to slide lower as investors turn more risk averse.
Wall Street is now focused on macroeconomic data that’s to be released this week, including a highly anticipated jobs reports and inflation data.
Markets are likely to use the economic data to assess the future direction of interest rates in the U.S.
Futures traders are currently pricing in only a 27% chance that the U.S. Federal Reserve cuts interest rates another 25-basis points in January.
In the near-term, analysts say there aren’t many catalysts for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies right now.
The ongoing decline of Bitcoin in recent weeks is a bit surprising as December tends to be a good month for crypto.
On average, BTC has risen 9.2% in December since 2014, according to data from Dow Jones. But so far this December, Bitcoin’s price is down 1.2%.
