Bitcoin narrowly avoids falling under $60,000 as it bounces off lows

Bitcoin bounced off its recent low on Friday after narrowly avoiding falling below the key $60,000 mark, but some market commentators suggested there’s more selling to come.

The token was trading at $67,977.70 as of 10:16 a.m. ET, up 7% on the day.

Late on Thursday, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency fell below $61,000 and hovered just above the $60,000 mark. As of 7:50 a.m. ET on Friday, Bitcoin was recovering slightly, trading at $66,326.78.

A number of factors have contributed to the bitcoin bear market, which began after bitcoin hit a record high above $126,000 in October.

Why is bitcoin falling?

The sell-off comes amid a continued drop in tech stocks in the U.S. Bitcoin has often been correlated with risk assets like tech stocks in the U.S. and fall when they do.

Meanwhile, other assets such as gold and silver have been very volatile, adding to turmoil in the markets.

Forced liquidations — when traders’ positions are automatically sold as bitcoin hits a set price — continue to push the crypto market lower. On Thursday, there were more than $2 billion worth of long and short positions on crypto that were liquidated, according to Coinglass data. That figure was almost $800 million on Friday.

Meanwhile, there are signs that large institutional investors are selling their holdings.