Bitcoin Plummets Below $6,000 to Lowest Level in Over a Year. The world's largest cryptocurrency tumbled as much as 15 percent, with most of

the initial loss coming within a half hour window. It's the biggest drop since

February. Other digital coins slumped, with smaller rivals Ether, Litecoin and

XRP dropping more than 17 percent. Bitcoin Cash tumbled as much as 21 percent

as the Bitcoin offshoot faces its own split. "The market is trying to find the

bottom," said Michael Terpin, a San Juan, Puerto Rico-based partner at

Alphabit Fund. "People who are chartists look at historical patterns, and they

note there's one last final capitulation drop to get the last people fleeing

out of the market." Some traders speculated that investors may be leaving

Bitcoin to raise funds to buy Bitcoin Cash after it splits in anticipation

that each of the new coins will appreciate. Bitcoin dropped as low as $5,322,

the least since October 2017, or just before the surge in demand that pushed

its price to almost $20,000 in December. It's down about 70 percent from that

record high in the 10-year-old token. Two versions of Bitcoin Cash software

will be competing to become the dominant chain tomorrow, and some miners could

be switching from mining Bitcoin to mining Bitcoin Cash to lend one or the

other version support. "There's a potential for when hash rates declines,

inherently the network is less secure, and that makes Bitcoin less valuable,"

Travis Kling, founder of hedge fund Ikigai, said in a phone interview. Read

More: Satoshi vs. Bitcoin Jesus: Bitcoin Cash Battle Turns Personal. When it

split off a year ago, Bitcoin Cash jump-started the forking craze in which

dozens of software-development teams sought to create money out of thin air by

tweaking the original computer code and releasing coins with "Bitcoin" in

their names. A group headed by Craig Wright is expected to take control

tomorrow of the world's fourth-largest cryptocurrency following a software

upgrade. A rival faction that disagrees on how to best expand has been trying

to persuade the community of computer operators running the network to adopt

their version. About 70 percent of the so-called miners that process the

transactions that keep the network afloat are signaling they support the

version backed by Wright's allies, according to crypto data tracker Coin

Dance. The oldest cryptocurrency is again testing a support-level that's been

rock solid in 2018. Bitcoin plunged to levels under $6,000 time and again

since late last year, only to see buying return and prices come roaring back.

A convincing close of less than the November 2017 low at $5,907.64 could prove

precarious, with analysts including Bloomberg Intelligence's Mike McGlone last

month warning it could drop to $2,000. The digital asset is a good candidate

for technical analysis, because its supply is fixed and its demand is largely

driven by sentiment rather than fundamentals. DM