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The latest Bitcoin chart pattern suggests cryptocurrency speculators should brace for more losses.
The largest digital token has traced a so-called rising wedge, which technical analysts view as a kind of calm before the storm -- a temporary hiatus in episodes of often intense downward pressure on an asset’s price.
A rising wedge also formed between May and June, snapping an earlier sharp retreat in Bitcoin, only to give way to a 42% slump that took the virtual coin to $17,600 from more than $30,000.
Opinion is split on whether the token has found a floor around $20,000 after a 57% plunge this year sparked by tightening monetary policy, the implosion of leveraged crypto outfits and a glum mood in global markets.
The latest MLIV Pulse survey sides with the bears: most respondents said the token is more likely to tumble to $10,000 than to hit $30,000. It shed about 2.4% to reach $19,927 as of 12:10 p.m. in Singapore on Tuesday.
"Not only is the broader market environment not in its favour, even if the occasional bear-market rally inspires some hope, but the crypto community isn’t exactly buzzing either,” Craig Erlam, a senior market analyst at Oanda, wrote in a note.