Bitcoin slipped in Asia trading hours while other risk assets gained after the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates and expressed optimism about the economy.
The original cryptocurrency fell as much as 3.2% to briefly dip below $90,000 on Thursday, down from an intra-day high of $94,490 the day before, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Smaller tokens also retreated, with Ether shedding as much as 5.2% of its value.
Bitcoin is in a weakened position after enduring a weeks-long selloff that began in early October with a major liquidation event, which wiped out about $19 billion in levered bets. Asian equities tracked gains on Wall Street on Thursday morning after Fed Chair Jerome Powell pushed through a quarter percentage point rate cut, but the move did little to lift the mood among crypto traders.
The S&P500 rose 0.7% in New York on Wednesday, posting its biggest gain on a Fed decision day since March and closing just shy of a record high.
“It’s a clear decoupling,” said Sean McNulty, APAC derivatives trading lead at FalconX. The next significant level for Bitcoin is $88,500, with $85,000 acting “as the critical line in the sand,” he added.
Traders now face a mixed bag in terms of technical indicators as to where the market is heading next.
On Wednesday, US exchange-traded funds investing in Bitcoin saw a net inflow of $224 million, led by $193 million for BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust — its highest in 30 days. Strategy Inc., the Michael Saylor-led Bitcoin treasury company, acquired 10,624 tokens worth $962.7 million from Dec. 1 to Dec. 7, marking its largest acquisition since July.
Yet the Strategy purchase failed to maintain the token’s price above $94,000, “confirming that demand is being overwhelmed by structural selling,” McNulty said.
Perpetual futures contracts for Bitcoin, which account for the largest share of crypto trading volume, are showing a pessimistic tilt, with funding rates turning negative during Asia hours, meaning bearish traders are now paying bullish counterparts to maintain short positions, according to CryptoQuant data.
While Bitcoin has rallied back from a “capitulation low” of $80,537 in recent weeks, Tony Sycamore, analyst at IG Australia, said the token is at risk of “a turn lower and for a retest and break” of that level.
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