Bitcoin halts longest rally since December after 24% increase

Bitcoin is snapping its longest rally since December and retreating before a trendline set from its record high that month.

The largest digital currency dropped 2.9% to $8 579 as of 12:48 pm in London, according to prices compiled by Bloomberg. Bitcoin had increased 24% over its five successive days of gains.

“Bitcoin is struggling for momentum along the trendline, after all of those gains,” said Neil Wilson, market analyst in London for online trading platform ETX Capital. “And if people can now withdraw from the Japanese exchange, that’s going to make a difference.”

The drop came as Japan’s Coincheck, which froze withdrawals after a cyber-theft last month of about $500 million, said it would begin letting some users take out their yen. The company, Japan’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange before the hack, said later on Tuesday that users withdrew 40.1 billion yen ($373 million.) More Bitcoin is traded in yen than in any other currency, according to Coincompare.com.

Coincheck continues to allow Bitcoin trading, but has frozen all other activity on its platform and is not permitting withdrawals of rival digital coins until security checks are taken with a third-party firm — and only after reimbursing those whose coins were stolen in the hack.