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Bitcoin BTC$80,955.28 has dropped more than 2% in the past 24 hours, with some of the other major coins such as XRP (XRP), ether ETH$2,363.06 and solana (SOL) sliding even further. The move looks less like a crypto-specific story and more like a broad-based exit from riskier investments.
Futures tied to copper, a closely watched barometer of global economic health, fell nearly 1%, extending Wednesday's 1.6% decline. Other growth-sensitive assets tumbled, with Asian stocks dragged lower by a rout in Korean chipmakers. Nasdaq index futures and risk-sensitive currency pairs such as Aussie dollar-Swiss franc, are down as well.
At the same time, Treasury yields are falling — meaning bond prices are rising — while gold is up 1%. The yield on the 10-year note, the benchmark borrowing rate, has dropped by eight basis points to 5.08%, extending the pullback from the recent peak of 5.36%. Treasuries and gold are often treated as haven investments.
Together, the moves point to investors reducing exposure to risk and seeking safety, with some stagflation fears mixed in.
“It feels more like a stagflationary environment where risk assets and the US dollar generally underperform, while gold outperforms,” InvestingLive analyst Giuseppe Dellamotta wrote in a market update.
Concerns the Fed will raise interest rates have been cited as one catalyst after Wednesday’s hotter-than-expected U.S. CPI report. But that concern appears to be fading.
CME fed funds futures now price in only a 29% chance of the central bank hiking its benchmark rate into the 4%–4.25% range later this month. The remaining probability is for rates to stay unchanged at 3.75%–4%. Odds briefly approached 50% after the CPI print, but quickly scaled back.
Looking ahead, Thursday’s producer price index will offer another read on how much inflation remains in the pipeline. A hot number could add fuel to the risk-off mood.
Traders will also watch the AI trade and whether it continues to unwind. Analysts at 10x Research still prefer holding bitcoin while that unwind plays out, but only as long as BTC holds above $78,000. Further, they prefer to “use ether as a hedge for BTC long positions.”
Read more: For analysis of today's activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today . For a comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's "Crypto Week Ahead."
The chart shows ether’s daily price swings in candlestick format since May.
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