Bitcoin (BTC) at $89,205.79 and other cryptocurrencies failed to hold onto gains from Wednesday’s Greenland-related relief rally.
After briefly topping $90,000 over the past 18 hours, BTC slid back to around $88,500, down 1.5% in the past 24 hours. Ether (ETH) fell below $3,000, dropping 2.5% to $2,955.52.
Crypto-focused stocks also struggled, even as broader equities climbed, with the Nasdaq up 0.7%. Shares of Bullish (BLSH), Hut 8 (HUT), Galaxy Digital (GLXY), and XXI (XXI) fell between 2% and 4%.
“The consensus view is that crypto markets remain bearish until around September,” said Kaledora Fontana, CEO of Ostium, a platform for digitized commodities perpetual swaps. “Rate cuts are not expected until after a Fed Chair transition, and it takes time for those changes to affect risk-on assets. Meaningful upside likely comes only after these effects work through the system.”
Despite bitcoin’s struggles near $90,000 and modest year-to-date gains, signs of risk appetite remain. This is evident in the MicroStrategy (MSTR) to BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) ratio.
On a day when bitcoin traded lower, the MSTR-to-IBIT ratio remained slightly positive and is up roughly 5% year-to-date, reflecting continued interest in what MicroStrategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor calls “amplified bitcoin.” The ratio also appears to have broken a long-term downward trend in place since July.
