For the first time since 2015, Bitcoin began a new year by tumbling, extending its slide from a record $19,511 reached on December 18.
According to data compiled by Bloomberg relying on today’s market trend showed that the virtual coin traded at $13,150 as of 12:58 p.m. in New York, down 8.1 percent from Friday, which also represented a fall from the $14,156 it hit Sunday, according to coinmarketcap.com, which tracks daily prices.
Bitcoin is having an unusually bad first day of th year
Bloomberg noted that the percentage changes reflected bitcoin’s rise or fall today. The figure for 2018 reflects the cryptocurrency’s price as of 12:30 p.m. in New York.
Bitcoin got off to a much stronger start last year, and then kept that momentum going, eventually creating a global frenzy for cryptocurrencies. In a sign of its phenomenal price gain in 2017, 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.
Meanwhile, analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. foresee some financial imbalances, including those in credit markets and cryptocurrencies, that will shadow an otherwise robust 2018 U.S. economy,
For instance, the Group’s economist, Jan Hatzius, has made some predictions for the new year. These include, four Federal Reserve rate hikes, real U.S. gross-domestic product growth quickening to an average of 2.6 percent, the jobless rate dropping to about 3.5 percent, and the yield curve not inverting.
In a new report, Hatzius reiterated his expectation for overall economic strength, while flagging some concerns.
“Asset valuations in some areas — especially credit — have risen to high levels by historical standards,” Hatzius said in the “10 Questions for 2018” report issued late Friday.
“While we have not seen the type of large credit expansions that would be most worrisome for Fed officials concerned about financial imbalances, there are now some signs of speculative behavior in financial markets, e.g. the cryptocurrency boom”, Hatzius added.
