Bitcoin Resumes Slide After Running Into 'Wall of Resistance'

Bitcoin has flirted with regaining the $40,000 mark all week but has failed to do so, showing strong resistance at that threshold.

Bitcoin is striving -- and failing -- to break above key technical hurdles this week, moving lower toward a major inflection point instead. Bitcoin has flirted with regaining the $40,000 mark all week but has failed to do so, showing strong resistance at that threshold. Additionally, the coin has tried to close above its 100-day moving average over the past four sessions but is struggling with that as well. Meanwhile, the coin appears primed to near an inflection point soon -- its 100-day moving average, its latest price, and its 50-day moving average appear likely to converge. "Bitcoin is back in negative territory after prices ran into a wall of resistance around $40,000," Craig Erlam, a senior market analyst at OANDA, said in a note. "Perhaps profit taking hasn't run its course just yet." He sees $36,000 as a key level to watch -- it coincides with resistance seen in late June and early July and also represents a 50% retracement of the move from the recent lows to highs.