Bitcoin price continues to slide down. On 2 August, it fell below $600 but later corrected to $604.
At the press time, bitcoin was traded at $605.9, decreasing by 3% in 24 hours. The cryptocurrency has not fallen that low since 22 June of this year.
Overall, bitcoin has lost almost 8% since Sunday. On 31 July, it traded at $654. Bitcoin system market capitalisation decreased to $9.54 bln.
One of the main factors apparently affecting investors’ mood is the expectation of the official statement following the three-day meeting between bitcoin core developers and miners that has taken place in California. Such industry leaders as Bitmain / AntPool, Blockstream, HaoBTC and F2Pool were reported taking part in the event. As bitcoin community participants suggest, the network scaling became the main issue.
It is already known that the joint statement of the meeting participants is being prepared. Brian Bishop, the LedgerX bitcoin startup developer announced that the statement is 75 pages long.
37,293 words, nearly 75 pages #bitcoin
— kanzure (@kanzure) August 1, 2016
Macroeconomic factors seem to influence the bitcoin rate too. The slowdown in the GDP growth of the world’s largest economy, the United States, as well as the unwillingness of many central banks to radically change monetary policy and cut interest rates, may in the long term play into the hands of such assets as bitcoin, which involve high investment risk.
But in the short term, the market is dominated by sales of raw material and high-risk assets. Investors are taking profit, therefore the bitcoin price may drop even further in the coming days.
Elena Platonova
