Bitcoin prices continue their slow starting to the week, trading mostly unchanged Tuesday.
In late-afternoon Tuesday trading, a single bitcoin BTCUSD, -0.12% was last going for $6,532.58, down 0.1% since Monday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on the Kraken crypto exchange.
The world’s largest digital currency has not traded outside the $6,500 to $6,600 range this week. “Bitcoin price is consolidating on the back of low volume,” wrote Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets U.K., evident by futures volumes, which slumped to their lowest levels since Sept. 20 on the CME Group exchange with just 1,514 contracts changing hands Monday.
“We are struggling to break the resistance of $6,800 and $7,000. The support of $6,000 remains a major focal point,” Aslam said.
Bitcoin technical resistance
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Furthermore, the sideways price action has pushed the 30-day bitcoin volatility index to a 12-week low of 2.55%. Year-to-date the index has fallen more than 500 basis points.
Altcoins and futures wrap up quiet Tuesday
Coins other than bitcoin, often referred to collectively as altcoins, were having a mixed Tuesday. Ether, ETHUSD, -0.19% the second largest digital currency was down 0.3% at $225.10, Bitcoin Cash BCHUSD, +0.02% has climbed 1.5% at $535.70, Litecoin LTCUSD, +0.00% was off 1.2% at $59.58 and a single XRP coin XRPUSD, -1.07% was trading at 54 cents, down 4.7%.
In futures trading, the Cboe Global Markets October contract XBTV8, -0.46% finished the day down 0.2% at $6,530 and the CME Group October contract US:BTCU8 closed down 0.5% at $6.510.
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