News that an influential bitcoin holder is taking a break from selling has added to a bullish case for the digital currency.
A trustee of defunct Tokyo bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox sold more than 35,000 bitcoin, worth about $400 million at the time, to pay off creditors, according to details of the sale published by a company trustee last week.
The exchange closed in 2014 and filed for bankruptcy after the theft of 850,000 bitcoin. In order to liquidate Mt. Gox's remaining 166,000 bitcoin, worth about $1.6 billion at Monday's prices, lawyer and trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi said he still needs regulatory approval.
Some reports and Twitter users said the next court hearing is not until September 2018.
"It's still hanging over but now we've got six months or so before that's an issue," Brian Kelly, CEO of BKCM, told CNBC Monday. "In terms of the Tokyo Whale it's a supply issue, but it's also a sentiment issue."
Bitcoin prices briefly recovered into this week. The digital currency rose 6.96 percent from Friday's close to a high of $9,885.22 Monday, according to CoinDesk's bitcoin price index. Prices later fell to $9,241.17 as of 12:40 p.m. ET Monday.
Bitcoin fell below $10,000 and shed nearly 18 percent of its value over two days last week following increased regulatory scrutiny of cryptocurrency exchanges last week.
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