SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Bitcoin pulled back from a high on Monday and other cryptocurrencies slipped, as investors took profits from a breaking down rally that had pushed bitcoin near $ 50,000.
Bitcoin fell as much as 5.6% to $ 45,914 in Asian trading hours after posting a peak of $ 49,714.66 on Sunday, while crypto competitor ethereum slipped more than 8%.
Once on the financial margin, bitcoin is fast gaining legitimacy as an asset class and has jumped 20% in the week since electricity maker Tesla Inc announced $ 1.5 billion in bitcoin and that he would accept the money as payment.
It is up more than 60% for the year to date and has gained over 1,100% since hitting a year – low low in March last year.
“This undeveloped wave of big (buying) players that has continued to push the price higher,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Melbourne’s Pepperstone bankruptcy. “We may be seeing a couple of large assets just turning out,” he said.
“The big question is: Okay, you want to buy the withdrawal, but how big is the withdrawal that we are talking about? ”
In addition to Tesla’s investment, Bank of NY Mellon said last week that it has set up a new unit to help clients own and trade digital property.
Bloomberg said Saturday that Morgan Stanley’s investment arm is measuring bitcoin bets.
Reciting with Tom Westbrook; Edited by Kim Coghill and Sam Holmes