Analysts are blaming a mass sell-off for the latest downward pressure, as £100m of positions were liquidated into fiat currency.

The cryptocurrency has experienced a bearish November after testing the $10,000 resistance at the end of October.

The market has been oversupplied with bitcoin during this period as miners have been selling more to cover the costs that come with mining, principally the electricity usage.

Many have pinned the most recent activity on stern warnings from China, as the People's Bank (PBoC) announced it would be coming down hard on crypto trading.

Despite the Chinese government voicing enthusiasm for blockchain technology last month, the PBoC is warning against confusing this with crypto mining or trading.

The positive sentiment towards blockchain may have driven a rise in trading activity, with the PBoC announcing new steps to enforce its ban on crypto exchanges, saying Bitcoin would be "disposed of immediately" when discovered. 

Gabor Gurbacs, director at investment manager, VanEck, has also cited recent product development and M&A being funded wityh crypto and generally lower liquidity as possible factors for the downward movement. 

In a recent tweet, Gurbacs also pointed to "year-end tax-loss arbitrage" as a theory. This involves investors manipulating the price down in order to decrease or even negate their gains on crypto in 2019 for tax reporting purposes.

Bitcoin has subsequently rebounded since hitting its six-month low, now sitting back above $7000 at the time of writing.

However, commentators are fearful of further losses lying ahead, with Simon Peters of eToro highlighting the perils of an expected "death cross", caused by the 50-day moving average falling below the 200-day moving average.

This caused bitcoin to fall more than 60% on the two occasions it has occurred previously.