Bitcoin (BTC-USD) had a rough week, with the token briefly slipping below $100,000, its lowest level in six months.
On Friday, the world’s largest cryptocurrency was sitting as much as 20% off its all-time high of above $126,000 notched on Oct. 6.
Wall Street has attributed the slide to early adopters offloading their large holdings. Since late June, net sales from long-term holders have exceeded 1 million bitcoin, according to research from Compass Point analyst Ed Engel.
A massive liquidation of leveraged crypto positions on Oct. 10 also weighed on the market, with bitcoin struggling to find a footing after breaking below support levels of $117,000 and then $112,000.
“We haven’t really reclaimed this level since then, and I think that’s a sign we are, unfortunately, in a bear market,” Markus Thielen, founder and CEO of Singapore-based 10X Research told Yahoo Finance on Friday morning.
Thielen’s firm, which last month predicted bitcoin would fall to $100,000, now expects the market may still be “a few weeks away” from reaching a buyable bottom.
“I think there’s this brief risk where we could correct quite a bit more,” he added
