Investing.com – Bitcoin fell Thursday and remained on track to snap a three-week losing streak, with the bulls and bears tussling for dominance at a key technical level.
Bitcoin fell 1.08% to $10,551 to trade near session lows of $10,482.
With little fundamental data to spark a move in either direction, traders have been watching bitcoin's attempt to fight its way above its 50-day moving average at around the $10,600 price level for signs that bullish momentum can continue.
The popular crypto has also come under fire from legendary investor Mark Mobius, who questioned the widely held notion that the blockchain – the digital ledger that records every bitcoin transaction – is impenetrable.
For the uninitiated, bitcoin miners are users who help maintain the system by validating transactions stored in blocks on the network. Using high-powered computer hardware, miners validate blocks by solving a complex puzzle – the more powerful the computer, the faster its ability to solve the puzzle. Every time a puzzle is solved, a reward of roughly 12.5 bitcoins is distributed to the puzzle solver, or miner. But the reward is halved every four years, with the next halving expected in 2020.
"A lot of people say blockchain can’t be broken into. No, it can be. Anything that’s created by man can be broken into. And it could create a big crisis,” the founding partner of Mobius Capital Partners told CNBC on Thursday.
With bitcoin on the back foot, alt coins came under a wave of selling pressure. XRP fell 1.96% to $0.2548, Ethereum lost 3.50% to $171.46 and Litecoin was down 4.85% to $64.74.