Bitcoin Starts 2018 with a Fall

Bitcoin is starting the new year on the back foot, with investors betting that the digital currency has further to fall.

The cryptocurrency is already having a bad year as for the first time since 2015, Bitcoin began a new year by declining, extending its slide from a record $19,511 reached on Dec. 18.

The virtual coin fell to $13,624.56 as of 5 p.m. in New York on Monday, down 4.8 percent from Friday. That’s also a drop from the $14,156 it hit Sunday, which tracks daily prices. The cryptocurrency fluctuated in Asian trading on Tuesday, trading 1.9 percent lower as of 3:22 p.m. in Hong Kong.

The cryptocurrency has seen a continuous pull back since hitting its all-time high and investors are betting that the slump has further to run. Bitcoin futures, which launched in early December, are down over 7%.

Bitcoin got off to a much stronger start last year, and then kept that momentum going, helping to create a global frenzy for cryptocurrencies. It rose 3.6 percent on the first day of 2017 to $998, data from coinmarketcap.com show. It ended the year up more than 1,300 percent.

That rally drew a growing number of competitors and last month brought bitcoin to Wall Street in the form of futures contracts. It reached the Dec. 18 peak hours after CME Group Inc. debuted its derivatives agreements, which some traders said would encourage short position-taking.

Mati Greenspan, an analyst who follows the crypto space closely, said in an email on Monday evening: "This new asset class has probably seen the quickest rise in value and market capitalization of any asset class in any year in history. The total value of all cryptocurrencies in circulation has risen by 3,137% from January 1st to December 31st.

"The amazing thing is that the rate of acceleration has continued to increase as the year progressed. Even the massive pullback that we saw in the week leading up to Christmas seems like a tiny blip when we look at the big picture."

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