Bitcoin rebounds from three-month low in volatile trade

Bitcoin recovered from three-month lows below $6,000 in choppy trading on Tuesday, but worries lingered about a global regulatory clampdown and moves by banks to ban buying bitcoin with credit cards.  

Investors swooped in after a steep fall. On the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, bitcoin hit $5,920, its lowest since mid-November, before recovering to above $7,000 BTC=BTSP. It was last at $7,260 in late morning trading in New York, up roughly 6 percent on the day.
“The recent weakness in bitcoin stems from tightening liquidity and near-term profit taking, and does not reflect a change in the long-term outlook for the digital currency,” said John Sarson, managing partner at Blockchain Momentum LP and ETF Momentum Investing in Indianapolis.
“We view this selloff positively as we believe that lower prices will entice institutions to act quickly to adopt enhanced digital asset services before prices recover.”
Bitcoin has slumped in recent sessions as a risk-off mood spread across financial markets. It has fallen about 70 percent from its peak of almost $20,000 in December and was down nearly 50 percent so far this year.
The original cryptocurrency gained more than 1,300 percent last year.
Other digital currencies also rose after posting steep losses the last few weeks. Ethereum, the second-largest by market value, was up 1.8 percent over the past 24 hours at $751.48, while the third-largest, Ripple, edged up 0.5 percent at 73 U.S. cents, according to cyrptocurrency tracker coinmarketcap.com.