Bitcoin Trades Near $83,000, Giving Up Most of Last Week's Gains — Update

By Joseph WilkinsBitcoin continued its decline on Monday after renewed geopolitical concerns and expectations for further U.S. interest-rate rises dampened investor sentiment.The flagship cryptocurrency was 1% lower in afternoon London trading at $83,662, having hit a one-week low of $82,773 earlier in the session.President Trump rejected an Iranian proposal for a seven-day ceasefire last week, telling aides he expects to resume bombing Iran after the November midterms, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Fears of higher interest rates resulting from any renewed conflict continue to weigh on the nonyielding token, with bitcoin retracing some of last week's gains that lifted it briefly above $87,000.Some analysts don't expect it to completely reverse those gains, however. "We would treat a retracement toward $80,000 as an accumulation opportunity rather than a failure of the breakout," said Colin Basco of Coinbase Institutional in a note.Bitcoin spent much of the summer in an extended period of consolidation, Trade Nation's David Morrison wrote in a note. This helped the cryptocurrency to build sufficient upside momentum, which wiped out short positions betting on it to fall and provided a basis for fresh buying. "If it can hold and consolidate above $80,000 then this would help to build bullish sentiment," Morrison said.Despite the recent slip, bitcoin has proved largely resilient in the wake of a significant spike in U.S. Treasury yields last week. The market now anticipates a 68% probability of another 25-basis-point rate raise by the Federal Reserve in October.Write to Joseph Wilkins at [email protected]