By Samuel Indyk
Investing.com – After breaching $40,000 on optimism that Amazon might imminently begin accepting cryptocurrencies as payment on its site, the price of Bitcoin has dropped back below $38,000 after a denial from the internet giant.
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“Notwithstanding our interest in the space, the speculation that has ensued around our specific plans for cryptocurrencies is not true,” an Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) spokesperson said on Monday evening.
“We remain focused on exploring what this could look like for customers shopping on Amazon.”
The exuberance came following a job advertisement for a Digital Currency and Blockchain Product Lead and London-based newspaper City AM said Amazon was looking to accept Bitcoin payments by the end of the year, citing in “insider”.
The rumours about Amazon pushed Bitcoin to its highest level since 15th June but the denial means the world’s largest cryptocurrency has returned to its recent range of between $30,000-$40,000, with a few forays either side.
Tether Criminal Probe
Separately weighing on Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies could be a US probe into whether executives behind the stablecoin Tether committed bank fraud. Bloomberg reported that the Justice Department is focusing on whether Tether concealed from banks that some transactions were linked to cryptocurrencies, when the digital token was in its early stages.
Technical picture
After breaching $40,000 to the upside, Bitcoin found some resistance ahead of the 100-day moving average around $40,600, which marked the top on Monday. A return back above $40,000 would bring the 100DMA back in play.
On the downside, $35,000 could act as support after acting as upside resistance in recent weeks. Below that level and $30,000 may again act as support.
And despite today’s dip, Bitcoin is still holding on to most of the gains seen over the weekend and is up almost 30% in the latest week.
Other major cryptocurrencies were showing similar price action. Ethereum was down around 2% in the last 24 hours but up over 30% in the last seven days to around $2,300.
Focus could now turn to the latest Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting on Wednesday. A hawkish surprise from the FOMC could weigh on riskier assets such as Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
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