Investing.com – Bitcoin fell on Tuesday as traders remained reluctant to initiate bullish bets on the popular crypto amid a lack of meaningful data.
Bitcoin fell 4.16% to $8,516.4 on the Bitfinex exchange after hitting a session high of $8,877.0.
Bitcoin’s narrow $450 trading range on Tuesday, pointed to uncertainty relating to the popular crypto’s next big move as sentiment turned negative following raids last week on Upbit, South Korea’s largest crypto exchange.
The annual blockchain conference Consensus that got underway on Monday was cited by some as the catalyst that would attract a meaningful move in bitcoin. But calls for a faster pace of U.S. regulation has been one of the few soundbites of note, so far.
"The faster the SEC moves, the faster it will be for businesses to stay in the United States," said ConsenSys founding managing partner Kavita Gupta, according to Coindesk.
Ahead of the Consensus conference, some market participants had claimed that the conference would spark a rally in bitcoin as attendance was expected to more than double, compared to a year ago.
“Bottom line: We expect BTC and cryptocurrencies to behave similarly to prior years and rally during Consensus,” said Tom Lee of Fundstrat Global Advisors.
The total crypto market cap edged below $400 billion following widespread selling of cryptocurrencies.
Ripple XRP fell 6.15% to $0.69702 on the Poloniex exchange, while Ethereum fell 3.93% to $712.83.
Bitcoin Cash fell 7.83% to $1,352.00 while Litecoin fell 6.67% to $140.61.