Bitcoin Starts New Year by Declining, First Time Since 2015

For the first time since 2015, bitcoin began a new year by declining, extending its slide from a record 15 days ago, according to Bloomberg.

The virtual coin fell to $13,624.56 as of 5 p.m. in New York on Monday, down 4.8 percent from Friday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s also a drop from the $14,156 it hit Sunday, according to coinmarketcap.com, which tracks daily prices. The cryptocurrency fluctuated in Asian trading on Tuesday, trading 1.9 percent lower as of 3:22 p.m. in Hong Kong.

Bitcoin got off to a much stronger start last year, and then kept that momentum going, helping to create a global frenzy for cryptocurrencies. 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 at $19,511 hours after CME Group debuted its derivatives agreements, which some traders said would encourage short position-taking.