Bitcoin Price Breaks Support, Slides to 6-Week Low

Bitcoin (BTC/USD) just broke through the $260 support to its lowest level in over 6 weeks.

Once breaking through the support, it shed another 2% to hit $255, its lowest price since July 2. Bitcoin initially pricked the $260 mark 6 hours ago while falling 2.5% from what had been relatively stable trade near $265 during the first half of the weekend.

The latest drop occurred on a volume spike to over 1500 BTC in less than hour, more than 5x the average during the preceding 24 hours.

This is the second straight weekend of bitcoin setting new multi-week lows.

The latest drop further erodes the gains realized in June and early July, which were likely motivated at least in part by speculation arising out of the Greece crisis. Bitcoin has given up more than 60% of those gains, and is now negative for the quarter.

It also fell further behind its 50-day moving average (MA), which up until today, had still been rising and now sits at $275. The widening of the crossover may be taken as a bearish sign by some traders, who may recall how a similar crossover during August one year ago eventually paved the way for one of the sharpest sell-offs in 2014.

Litecoin has been surprisingly stable, losing only 3% during the latest downturn and keeping above recent lows. The LTC/BTC rate remains flat near 0.015.