Investing.com – Bitcoin hovered above $8,000 as it struggled to hold gains, pressured by falling demand for cryptos.
Bitcoin fell 1.15% to $8,195.0 on the Bitfinex exchange as it gave up some of its gains after rising to a session high of $8,482.2.
The total market cap of cryptocurrencies fell to about $375 billion, at the time of writing, from about above $400 billion last week, pointing to a lack of investor demand in the wake of renewed regulatory pressures following last week’s raid on South Korea’s largest crypto exchange, Upbit.
The weakness in bitcoin also comes amid disappointment at the popular crypto’s failure to stage a rally during the annual Blockchain conference, Consensus, which took place earlier this week.
In the run up to the conference some analysts had claimed it would act as the touch-paper for a rally in bitcoin.
“Bottom line: We expect BTC and cryptocurrencies to behave similarly to prior years and rally during Consensus,” Tom Lee of Fundstrat Global Advisors said prior to the Consensus conference.
The downward move in bitcoin was mirrored by other large-cap cryptocurrencies.
Ripple XRP fell 0.67% to $0.67792 on the Poloniex exchange, while Ethereum fell 1.10% to $689.87.
Bitcoin Cash fell 2.11% to $1,238.70, while Litecoin fell 2.23% to $135.13.