Bitcoin’s price quickly dropped below $16,000 Saturday morning, putting the rapid rally seen in recent weeks on pause.

• Around 10:00 UTC, the cryptocurrency dropped as low as $15,750, having hit highs over $16,300 in the Asian trading hours.
• As reported earlier this week, analysts had been expecting bitcoin (BTC, -1.49%) to move into consolidation for a time, and possible to see a pullback.
• That's because the rally from $9,800 to over $16,000 over the past two months looked overstretched on the technical charts.
• They anticipated, however, that the run toward bitcoin's record high of around $20,000 would pick up the pace again, likely in December.
• The bitcoin options market is also extremely bullish longer-term, as data showed Thursday that net demand for call options (bullish bets) was outstripping net demand for puts (bearish bets) by the highest level on record.
• At press time, bitcoin prices had risen slightly to $15,860, down 2.87% over 24 hours.