The price of bitcoin plunged below $7,000 Thursday as reports discussed the cryptocurrency passing a so-called “Death Cross,” a statistical estimate of longer-term trends.

Bitcoin has been mostly stagnant in March as many investors sat on it waiting to see where it may go. Despite fanboys such as Twitter Inc. and Square Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey predicting that bitcoin will be the sole global currency within 10 years, news surrounding bitcoin has turned quiet, except for a scare relating to a crackdown on cryptocurrency trading in Japan March 8. That drove the currency below the $10,000 mark.

The Death Cross describes an asset’s short-term movement average crossing below its long-term average, indicating much more downward action in the market than usual, according to Motherboard. Put even more simply, bitcoin’s price has been heading down for some time and having done so for nearly 50 days, analysts believe the decline itself will trigger further declines.

Critics of the Death Cross theory rightly note that applying a statistical model usually used with stock and fiat currency movements is fraught with risk, since bitcoin hasn’t historically fit into any traditional prediction models. That said, given the lack of action around bitcoin of late, negative predictions often become self-fulfilling prophecies. Indeed, the current price movements since the Death Cross predictions started making headlines would suggest that this may well be the case here.

Bitcoin was trading at $6,886.21 as of 11 p.m. EDT, which according to CNBC marked a decline of nearly 29 percent for the week and 50 percent for the year so far.

Where bitcoin goes, other cryptocurrencies usually follow, and there were similar price declines across all major altcoins. Ethereum was trading at $374.64, down from $545.21 March 24, while Ripple XRP was trading at 49.58 cents, down from a weekly high of 58 cents.

Photo: motograf/Flickr