It was off the day’s low of US$58,400 but is down about 12per cent from the record high of US$69,000 set on Nov.
While profit-taking after the massive run-up in prices was emerging as the biggest factor, analysts pointed to other reasons behind the more cautious sentiment, such as bitcoin’s blockchain upgrade last weekend, higher U.S.
Bitcoin has doubled in value since January.
Average funding rates fell to 0.00354per cent on Tuesday, according to cryptocurrency analytics platform CryptoQuant, their lowest since late September and down from 0.04122per cent on Nov.
Funding rates represent sentiment in the perpetual swaps market, a major part of the bitcoin derivatives world.
And perhaps more volatility in ETH and altcoins,” they wrote in a post on social media platform Telegram.