Investing.com - Bitcoin on Monday extended its retreat from last week, though it held above the key $10,000 level.
Bitcoin fell 10.65% to $10,258. It's now off about 26% from its June 26 interim high of $13,929.80.
A decline of 20% or more from a recent high is the popular definition of a bear market.
In a sign of hope for bitcoin bulls, the plunge to the $10,000 level offered support, with some predicting limited downside activity in the popular crypto as its diversification benefits represent a compelling opportunity for institutional investors.
“Bitcoin's most compelling case for institutional investors may be as an uncorrelated asset to stocks, bonds, gold and oil, as bitcoin continues to demonstrate low correlation to other asset classes,” Canaccord said in its Bitcoin Monthly report.
The move lower in bitcoin, however, is unsurprising as traders likely continue to lock in profits after the popular cryptocurrencies soared through multiple key psychological levels, boasting gains of 26% in June.
The popular crypto has nearly trebled since the turn of the year, a move – unlike the 2017 rally - that was likely led by institutional investors rather than retail.
“While the parabolic move in 2017 was likely led by retail investors (over 100K new Coinbase accounts being set up per day), Google Trends data shows that search interest for bitcoin is not even close to previous levels,” Canaccord added.
“Instead, open interest in CME bitcoin futures reached all-time highs last week, indicating that the fuel behind this rally could be new capital flowing in from institutional investors.”
For the moment, however, bitcoin would likely have to stabilize outflows to stop the current malaise.
Bitcoin’s market cap, often used as a gauge of demand, fell 25% to $183 billion over the past week.
Other cryptos also trended lower, with XRP falling 2.68% to $0.39527, Ethereum down 5.87% to $285.13 and Litecoin plunigng 11.37% to $117.03.