Bitcoin prices are trading higher Friday, as bullish participants are trying to avoid consecutive losing weeks in a market that has suffered five weekly losses in the past six.
The price of one bitcoin BTCUSD, +0.27% was last changing hands at $6,387.06, up 0.6% since 5 p.m. Eastern Time Thursday on the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange.
While the medium- and long-term trend remains firmly down, data suggests retail investors haven’t thrown in the towel.
“Retail trader data shows 82.6% of traders are net long with the ratio of traders long-to-short at 4.76 to 1. The number of traders net-long is 0.7% higher than yesterday and 2.9% lower from last week, while the number of traders net-short is 2.7% lower than yesterday and 0.5% lower from last week,” wrote Jack Schwarze, research analyst at DailyFX.
“We typically take a contrarian view to crowd sentiment, and the fact traders are net-long suggests bitcoin prices may continue to fall.”
Bitcoin positioning
Bitcoin Cash leads altcoins higher
Altcoins, or smaller coins other than bitcoin, are outperforming the largest digital currency Friday. Ether ETHUSD, +1.42% was up 2% at $201.08, Bitcoin Cash BCHUSD, +7.67% was leading the charge, rising 8.1% at $456.60, Litecoin LTCUSD, +2.24% had gained 2.8% at $51.49 and XRP, XRPUSD, +0.47% was up 0.8% at 46 cents.
Bitcoin futures were outperforming spot prices in Friday trading. The Cboe Global Markets November contract XBTX8, +0.75% was up 0.8% at $6,365, while the CME Group November contract US:BTCV8 was up 0.7% at $6,360.
Read: The round numbers that show just how far bitcoin has come in 10 years
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