Bitcoin, the worlds more prominent digital currency, opened lower Friday and is poised for six consecutive daily losses, less than three weeks after it notched six successive winning sessions. After hovering above support at $7,500 for most of Thursday, bitcoin slumped to a session low of $7,290.02 in early New York trading. However, the recent selloff may be the work of one large bitcoin holder. On Friday, Hong-Kong exchange OKEx released a statement saying that it had liquidated a large position accumulated on its exchange.
The Intercontinental Exchange, the company that owns the New York Stock Exchange, announced Friday it will launch a new company that will enable consumers to transact, store and spend digital assets, leveraging off Microsoft’s cloud services. The company, Bakkt, will include federally regulated markets and will begin by offering clients the ability to trade and convert bitcoin against fiat currencies,
Bitcoin futures followed spot prices lower finishing Friday in the red. The Cboe Global Markets Inc. contract finished down 1.9% at $7,395 and the CME Group Inc.’s August contract is closed at $7,370, down 2%.
Altcoins had a mixed Friday. Ether has gained 1.3% to $415.14.
