Bitcoin slipped below $79,000 during Asian trading on Thursday as traders increased their expectations for a possible Federal Reserve rate hike, weighing on sentiment across much of the crypto market.
BTC declined nearly 1% to trade just below $79,000, after briefly crossing $80,000 for the first time since May. Despite the pullback, Bitcoin was still holding a 14% seven-day gain.
XRP recorded the biggest loss among major cryptocurrencies, falling almost 3% to just above $1.41. The token nevertheless remained up roughly 28% over the past week, giving it the strongest weekly performance among the major assets. HYPE dropped more than 1% to below $81, while Tron slipped less than 1% to just over $0.33.
Solana moved against the broader decline, gaining nearly 4% to above $101 and extending its weekly rise to around 19%. Ether advanced about 1% to below $2,494, while BNB added nearly 1% to trade just under $703. Dogecoin remained near $0.09.
Weekly performance figures have cooled sharply as the latest seven-day window moves beyond last week’s major rally. Bitcoin’s seven-day gain has fallen to 14% from 23%, while Ether’s has dropped to 11% from 29%.
Rate-Hike Bets Challenge Bitcoin Rally
Markets are becoming less supportive of the crypto rally as expectations for monetary policy shift. Short-dated U.S. Treasury yields declined overnight while traders raised their bets on a rate increase, challenging the lower-yield environment that helped Bitcoin rebound from below $68,000 last week.
Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh is due to give his first Jackson Hole keynote on Friday. His speech comes roughly three weeks before the Fed’s Sept. 15-16 policy meeting.
Joel Kruger, markets strategist at LMAX Group, said Bitcoin’s daily technical indicators have entered overbought territory. Still, he noted that even extreme overbought readings do not automatically lead to a major reversal.
Kruger highlighted the $82,820 area, corresponding to Bitcoin’s May high, as the next key technical hurdle. A break above that level could strengthen the bullish outlook and potentially open a path toward $100,000.
Equities Move Higher
Stock markets delivered a stronger performance. Nvidia shares jumped nearly 5% in extended trading after the company pointed to robust sales growth through 2028. The gains also benefited chipmakers such as Marvell Technology and Sandisk.
MSCI’s Asia Pacific index gained about 0.5%, supported by SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, while South Korea’s Kospi advanced almost 2%.
Singapore-based QCP Capital offered a more cautious assessment of Bitcoin’s rally. The firm said declining open interest indicates that short covering, rather than fresh speculative positioning, may be driving much of the recent move.
QCP said spot Bitcoin ETF inflows appear to represent the more fundamental source of buying demand. With liquidity still relatively limited, the firm questioned whether the rally has enough underlying support to develop into a sustainable trend or could lose momentum once short covering subsides.
