Update: Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao refutes the report from The Block.
The price of Bitcoin tumbled on Thursday, dropping below a key psychological barrier of $8,000.
Right now, the price of the leading cryptocurrency is down 6.96% at $7,572, according to COIN360.
The second and third-largest cryptocurrencies, Ethereum and XRP, are also in the red. Ethereum is down 9.18% at $160.25, while XRP is down 5.09% at $0.2394.
The plunge coincided with a report from The Block that cited anonymous sources.
According to the report, the Shanghai office of leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance was abruptly shut down by authorities. The news comes days after the accounts of Binance and leading blockchain and cryptocurrency Tron were banned on Weibo, one of China’s biggest social media platforms.
Crypto analysts are trying to plot the path forward for BTC after Thursday’s big dip.
DonAlt tells his 123,000 followers on Twitter he thinks Bitcoin is in the midst of a natural correction after its big rise to $14,000 earlier this year.
“People talking about $3000 right now are being more unreasonable than people talking about new highs. A run from $200 -> $20k is going to take some time to digest.
$3k was an overreaction to the downside. $14k was an overreaction to the upside. We’re now finding middle ground.”
Nick Patel tells his crew of 75,000 followers the next line to watch for is $7,300. If that breaks, he thinks a further drop to $6,100 is in play.
“If BTC can’t find a bottom here like I figured it would I think we’ll move all the way to take out that ~7300 low. If that does happen, cross your fingers for a swing-failure because a clean break would likely lead to a move back to ~6100.”
Rekt Capital tells his 24,000 followers there’s plenty of precedent for a Bitcoin drop before the halving, which is set to cut the reward miners earn for powering the network in half next May.
“Bitcoin tends to retrace strongly a few months prior to its Halving. These retraces tend to be the 1st major correction in a new BTC bull market. They tend to have a wicking bottom followed by a Higher Low (black trendline). The HL shows that people want to buy BTC at a premium.”
Meanwhile, the crypto market analytics company Skew says today’s price action has effectively eliminated Bitcoin’s late October pump, led by reports out of China that President Jinping Xi is pushing to further support blockchain technology – but not the crypto industry.