bitcoin

Bitcoin in the doldrums, can’t shake $6500 range


Major digital currency prices are trading at or near Thursday’s closing levels, continuing a trend that’s held most coins inside tight ranges over the last four sessions.

Bitcoin, the world’s largest digital currency, was last changing hands at $6,632.87, down 0.2% since Thursday’s level at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on the Kraken exchange. After rising more than 10% earlier in the week, bitcoin














BTCUSD, -0.26%












 has gone back and forth between $6,300 and $6,500 lacking any real direction.

“The week started with a sharp spike, subsequently sold into, before low volume and tight trading ranges took control of the market once more. This pattern has dominated for the past month and may be the calm before the storm with a breakout becoming more and more likely,” the analyst team at Daily FX wrote in a morning post.

Read: Here’s how the U.S.-China trade battle is disrupting cryptocurrency miners



BTCUSD courtesy of TradingView

Since Monday’s rally, the market cap of all cryptocurrencies has traded either side of $210 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Read: This is where cryptocurrencies are actually making a difference in the world

First CFTC antifraud action involving bitcoin

Late Thursday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said it had ordered its first antifraud enforcement action involving bitcoin. A federal court in New York ordered Gelfman Blueprint Inc. and its CEO Nicholas Gelfman to pay $2.5 million after it cheated more than 80 customers out of $600,000.

Further reading: CFTC says it brings first antifraud bitcoin action

Altcoins limp out of the blocks Friday

The bitcoin lull has spread to the altcoin market, smaller coins alternative to bitcoin. Ether














ETHUSD, +0.49%












was up 0.5% at $199.61, Bitcoin Cash














BCHUSD, +0.72%












was up 0.3% at $429.50, Litecoin














LTCUSD, +1.71%












was up 1% at $52.01 and XRP,














XRPUSD, +0.30%












was unchanged Friday, at 45 cents.

Bitcoin futures are showing small losses in Friday trading. The Cboe Global Markets November contract














XBTX8, -0.08%












was down 0.2% at $6,370, while the CME Group October contract














BTCV8, -0.31%












had lost 0.4% at $6,365.

Read: Tight job market suggests crypto is here to stay—in one chart

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