Investing.com - Bitcoin traded flat Tuesday as it struggled to hold early gains after breaching $8,000 for the first time in nearly a year.
Bitcoin (BitfinexUSD) fell 0.97% to $7,750 on the Bitfinex exchange from a high of $8,194.10.
The rally in bitcoin faded some after the popular crypto rose above $7,800, a price level some had identified as resistance, or price levels that trigger selling pressure.
Bitcoin has rallied for six-straight weeks with some attributing the move to positioning ahead of next "halvening," which will see the amount that bitcoin miners receive halve to 6.25 BTC from the current 12.5 BTC, reducing the total supply in the market.
"Anticipation of the upcoming supply shock (of new BTC introduced via mining) may be creating upward pressure on the price of Bitcoin," wrote Alyse Killeen, a partner at the investment and advisory firm Stillmark, in an e-mail.
For the uninitiated, Bitcoin miners are users who help maintain the system by validating transactions stored in “blocks” on the network. Using high-powered computer hardware, miners validate blocks by solving a complex puzzle. The more powerful the computer, the faster its ability to solve the puzzle.
Every time a puzzle is solved, a reward of roughly 12.5 bitcoins is distributed to the puzzle solver, or miner.