Bitcoin retreats to consolidate below $30,000

The $30,000 mark is proving to be an obstacle for Bitcoin yet again.

The largest cryptocurrency steadied out below that round-number level after tumbling on Wednesday and closing down 6.8 per cent, near session lows. It was up 0.4 per cent to $29,704 as of 12.01pm in Singapore on Thursday.

“The technical outlook is neutral at best and Bitcoin really needs to trade back above $40k before any kind of bullish outlook can be confirmed,” Nicholas Cawley, a strategist at DailyFX, wrote in a note on Wednesday.

Bitcoin had staged a mini-rally to start the week, rising to a three-week high of $32,359 on Tuesday and giving some in the markets hope that it might gain upward momentum. Cryptocurrencies have struggled as the Federal Reserve and other central banks hike rates amid stubbornly high inflation.

Solana underperformed amid a network outage, dropping 4.5 per cent after having fallen 11 per cent the prior day. Avalanche was off 4.3 per cent.