Bitcoin climbs, finding floor after worst selloff since 2015

Bloomberg

Bitcoin rebounded along with most of the major cryptocurrencies, halting a four-day tumble that drew worldwide attention to the unregulated $500 billion market that’s frequently called a bubble.
The double-digit bounceback was strongest with second-tier digital coins. Bitcoin cash soared 21 percent and litecoin gained 12 percent as cryptocurrency traders regained optimism. They weren’t put off by comments published Saturday from a central banker in Germany that “the risk of rapid losses” is obscured in cryptocurrencies.
“The enthusiasm hasn’t been destroyed,” Marc Ostwald, global strategist at London-based ADM Investor Services International, said. “It’s a volatile market, and investors are hungry for that. They say everything else is boring.”
The broad recovery coincided with a pause in bearish news that had snowballed and shaved 24 percent off bitcoin’s value, its biggest four-day selloff since 2015. Comments by central bankers, a decision by litecoin’s founder to sell all his holdings and investors’ wishes to cut stakes before the holiday season fuelled the plunge.
“With holidays approaching, some people want to step away from the table, and take their chips with them,” Ostwald said about the selloff. “Still, I wouldn’t want to put it down too much to rationality, because this is not a rational market.”
While bitcoin wasn’t the most volatile crypocurrency, it’s the largest, and it shook the world of digital-coin trading when its inter-day plunge reached 30 percent. That was the steepest dive since 2015, back when its market value was just $2.4 billion. On Saturday it was about $260 billion.
Michael Novogratz, the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Fortress Investment Group LLC macro trader, said he’s shelving plans to start a cryptocurrency hedge fund. He predicted that
bitcoin may extend its plunge
to $8,000.
Growing pains in the digital-coin world and warnings emerged all week, adding to volatility.
Coinbase, one of the larger trading platforms, said all buys and sells were temporarily unavailable before they were re-enabled, according to its website.
In South Korea, Yapian, the owner of bitcoin exchange Youbit, said it would close and enter bankruptcy proceedings after a cyberattack that claimed 17 percent of its total assets.
There’s been a string of warnings by regulators for investors in
digital coins.
Bitcoin was at $13,264 as of 2 pm London time. That’s almost one-third off its record high of $19,511, based on prices compiled by Bloomberg. Ethereum, the No 2 cryptocurrency by market value, dropped 12 percent to $654.83 in the past 24 hours.