Bitcoin is facing selling pressure at press time, having failed to move above a long-held resistance level on Tuesday.
- The leading cryptocurrency is currently trading near $11,390, representing a roughly 4% decline on the day, according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index.
- Prices dropped by nearly $400 in just minutes, but have bounced slightly at the time of writing.
- The sell-off has coincided with a report that South Korean authorities have seized Bithumb, one of the country's biggest cryptocurrency exchanges by trading volume.
- "We are seeing a significant unwinding of leverage positions in bitcoin and major alternative cryptocurrencies on Bithumb news," Matthew Dibb, co-founder of Stack, a provider of cryptocurrency trackers and index funds, told CoinDesk in a WhatsApp chat.
- The bulls failed to establish a foothold above the $12,000 mark on Tuesday.
- The cryptocurrency has failed at least four times to keep gains above $12,000 in the past five weeks.
- Immediate support is located at $11,170; a violation there would confirm a head-and-shoulders breakdown, a bearish technical pattern, on the four-hour chart.
- That possibly cannot be ruled out as the U.S. dollar is showing signs of life.
- Bitcoin has developed a relatively strong negative correlation with the greenback over the past few weeks.
- The dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback against other major currencies, is now near 92.50 at press time, having clocked a 29-month low of 91.75 on Tuesday.
- "Corrective pressures are giving the greenback a reprieve," according to Marc Chandler, a former chief currency strategist for the giant British bank HSBC.
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