Bitcoin ‘BearWhale’ rattles cryptocurrency world

Even without the big sell limit, bitcoin's value has seen a steady degradation since early July when its price topped $630. Various explanations have been offered for the move, but one of the most common has been that the increased merchant adoption of the currency has put downward pressure on it.

The theory holds that merchantswho almost always accept bitcoins as payment for products and services and then immediately exchange them back into local currenciesare creating an excess of sellers in the marketplace, thereby adding to the fall in exchange value.

"More merchants want to take advantage of the purchasing power of the community, and the more merchants accept, the more bitcoins will be for sale," Euro Pacific Capital's Peter Schiff told CNBC in September. "(The market is) not going to be able to come up with enough new buyers."

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This point of view has been expressed by Citi and other observers.

But Gallippiwhose BitPay system enables businesses to accept bitcoins and then instantly exchange them for local currencydisputed this theory. While it is true that these transactions are bringing more sellers to the market, he said, most people are only using bitcoins for goods and services when they see the price spiking.

So in effect, the increased adoption of bitcoin by merchants is putting a ceiling on the price, but not applying general downward pressure, Gallippi said.

For more on the possible reasons why bitcoin may be sliding, CoinDesk put together a summary of the digital currency's third quarter.

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Bitcoin 'BearWhale' rattles cryptocurrency world