Bitcoin Falls Under $300

$300, it’s the new $400.

Yesterday’s selloff managed to push the price of bitcoin below the $300 mark this morning, around two weeks after the cryptocurrency fell below its prior $400 floor.

Here’s a screenshot from BitcoinAverage from earlier today:

Screen Shot 2014-10-05 at 9.05.51 AM

A chart of the decline:

Screen Shot 2014-10-05 at 9.05.47 AM

(In the ensuing bit, bitcoin has managed to re-crest the $300 level, a price range that it has largely kept to. Current price: $300.51, but a minute ago it was less. Keep your eyes on this.)

The next question is whether the $300 price level will represent a new floor for bitcoin. That’s to say it’s will be interesting to see if $300 is the price point under which bitcoin will not sink, but may bounce off of a few times. Or, on the bear side, if bitcoin’s recent, steep price declines will continue.

There is a certain irony to the negative price momentum that bitcoin is currently enduring: It has seen increasing support from retailers, precisely the sort of network growth that its acolytes have hoped it could muster. However, such support — PayPal, and the like — are not driving its price upward. This could be an argument that potential short-term increases in the volume of bitcoin transactions do not drive up its per-unit price.