It’s déjà vu for cryptocurrencies with major coins mostly unchanged to begin Wednesday trading. Despite a mini-rally Tuesday, bitcoin and other major currencies remain within their short-term ranges.
The lack of activity and inability to recover losses early in 2018 prompted research firm Trefis to lower its year-end price target for the No.1 digital currency. “Adjusting our forecast for transaction volumes in our interactive Bitcoin Price Estimator now leads to a year-end price target of around $12,500—down from our earlier estimate of $15,000,” wrote Trefis in a June 5 research note.
“The global cryptocurrency industry has seen a flurry of new developments since December. Many of these developments had a negative impact on the growth prospects of cryptocurrencies, like restrictions by banks on the use of credit cards to buy cryptocurrencies, and calls by financial regulators across the world for caution while investing in digital currencies.”
The Trefis Price Estimator tracks the current price trend with two inputs; daily active users and daily transaction volume and according to its website has an accuracy rate of over 94%.
A single bitcoin BTCUSD, +0.23% was last valued at $7,622.43, unchanged since Tuesday 5 p.m. Eastern Time on the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange.
Read: If bitcoin is a bubble, the ‘panic’ stage is near: economist
Altcoins and futures off to a quiet start
Major altcoins, or coins other than bitcoin, were mixed relative to Tuesday’s 5 p.m. Eastern Time closing levels. Ether ETHUSD, +0.13% is down 0.3% to $606.00, Bitcoin Cash BCHUSD, -0.94% has lost 0.4% at $1,146.70, Litecoin LTCUSD, +0.65% has added 0.8% at $122.17 and Ripple’s XRP coin XRPUSD, +0.08% is down 0.8% at 67 cents.
Bitcoin futures are off to a slow start. The Cboe June contract XBTM8, +0.52% is up 0.1% at $7,635, while the CME June contract BTCM8, +0.59% is unchanged at $7,620.