Bitcoin price (BTC/USD) fights to stay above $3,400 following morning drop

The Bitcoin price (BTC/USD) has hit an eight-day low after experiencing a sudden drop in today’s early trading.

While Bitcoin didn’t experience any major drops yesterday, it wasn’t able to make significant progress either. The coin did see a small uptick in the afternoon, but its tentative advance hit a wall just below the $3,480 mark. The coin eventually finished the session at $3,466.36, slightly above its opening price of $3,454.95.

The situation changed significantly in the early hours of today’s trading, when Bitcoin suffered a steep drop to the low $3,400 area. The coin has since been unable to recover from that hit. At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price was hovering around $3,420, according to data from digital currency tracker Coinmarketcap.

Bitcoin’s decline appears to be part of a downswing that has affected the wider cryptocurrency market. Most major digital coins, including Ripple (XRP), Ethereum (ETH) and EOS, has seen similar dips in today’s early trading. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has been the worst performer in the crypto top 10, having lost 4.5% of its value in the past 24 hours. The only major cryptocurrency bucking the downtrend is Binance Coin (BNB), whose price has increased by whopping 17% over that period.

The No. 1 cryptocurrency has had a challenging start to 2019. It was nearly 8% down in January, posting a sixth consecutive monthly loss – its longest losing streak on record. In addition, industry website Coindesk reported on Saturday that the current bear market had officially became the longest one in Bitcoin’s history, surpassing the 2013-2015 bear market that spanned 410 days.

In today’s trading, the Bitcoin price stood at $3,419.75, as of 09:49 GMT. The digital coin has lost 1.3% of its value in the past 24 hours. Its total market capitalisation currently stands at $59.9 billion, which represents 53.7% of the combined value of all digital currencies.