Bitcoin down 1%, heading toward lowest level of the week

Bitcoin prices are trading lower Friday, on track for back-to-back losing sessions for the first time since late October.

The world’s largest digital currency is creeping toward its lowest level of the week trading at $6,370.10, down 1.1% since Thursday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on the Kraken exchange. A move below $6,330 for bitcoin














BTCUSD, -1.09%












 would mark a new low for the week.

Read: Bitcoin may be an unlikely winner in midterm elections

For Charles Hayter, co-founder of CryptoCompare it’s business as usual for crypto participants. “The $6k mark remains fairly solid, volumes are on the lighter side but we are still seeing some positive steps, albeit slowly,” he said, citing Fidelity’s decision to open a cryptocurrency trading business for institutional investors.

Hayter added that after the hype cycle of 2017, the market is slowly working its way out of the 2018 negative cycle.

Read: Fidelity launches cryptocurrency trading platform

Ethereum upgrade set for January 2019

The long-awaited upgrade the second most popular blockchain, ethereum, has been targeted for Jan. 16, 2019. The network’s upgrade, called Constantinople, hopes to improve performance and scalability, the ability to process a larger number of transactions in a shorter space of time.

When the upgrade takes place, network participants will be required to upgrade their software together with the whole system.

Altcoins and futures moving lower

Altcoins, the group of more than 2,100 smaller coins other than bitcoin, were mostly trading lower on Friday. Ether,














ETHUSD, -2.06%












the second-largest altcoin was down 1.9% at $208.69, Bitcoin Cash














BCHUSD, -4.87%












was off 4.2% at $564.10, Litecoin














LTCUSD, -2.72%












had lost 2.6% at $51.61 and XRP,














XRPUSD, -0.10%












was up 0.3% at 50 cents.

Futures are looking at two losing sessions to close out the week. The Cboe Global Markets November contract














XBTX8, -1.28%












was down 1.2% at $6,344 and the CME Group November














BTCX8, -1.09%












was lower by 1.1% at $6,340.

Read: Bitcoin trapped in tighter range than Mexican peso, Brazilian real and other popular currencies

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