A short-lived bounce in crypto markets faded on Wednesday as selling pressure quickly returned, despite President Donald Trump attempting to calm geopolitical tensions over Greenland.
Bitcoin slid below $87,586 during midday U.S. trading, pushing the cryptocurrency into negative territory for the year. The token was down roughly 3% over the past 24 hours after briefly climbing back above $90,000 earlier in the session.
The brief rebound followed Trump’s remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he said the U.S. had no intention of taking Greenland by force and voiced confidence in the eventual passage of a crypto market structure bill. The comments, however, failed to sustain investor confidence.
Losses spread across major digital assets, with ether, XRP and Solana also extending declines.
Traditional markets performed better by comparison, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 holding modest gains despite retreating from session highs. Safe-haven demand remained firm, with gold rising another 1.5% to a fresh record above $4,800 per ounce, while silver was flat after reaching a record a day earlier.
Risk assets have been weighed down by rising tensions between the U.S. and Europe over Greenland, compounded by a sharp sell-off in Japan’s government bond market earlier in the week. Although Japanese bonds and equities recovered modestly on Wednesday, the broader impact continued to ripple through global markets.
Crypto and macro investor Arthur Hayes described the surge in Japanese government bond yields as “the match” that could spark a wider global risk-off move, warning, “Let’s see how big the fire gets.”
