Bitcoin on Friday, the US session started again with a sharp move lower, falling back to $88,500, although precious metals continued with breakneck rallies, with silver topping $100 an ounce for the first time ever. Gold was just shy of $5,000 an ounce, while platinum rose 5% to a new all-time high. Not a precious metal, but perhaps soon to be one at this rate, copper rose 2.5% to just below a record high.
Crypto-related stocks also fell. Coinbase (COIN) fell 2.6%, while Strategy (MSTR) fell 1.2%. Bitcoin miners Riot Platforms ( RIOT ) and MARA Holdings ( MARA ) were down 2%.
The fall in crypto also came as U.S. stocks pared early losses to turn mostly higher, with the Nasdaq ahead 0.4% despite a 15% post-earnings drop in Intel ( INTC ) .
The company beat fourth-quarter earnings expectations but disappointed first-quarter expectations, in part due to supply constraints for AI chips. The stock remains higher by 17% year to date.
Bitcoin US returns sink
When bitcoin reached $98,000 last week, cumulative returns this year during the US trading sessions were as high as 9%, noted CoinDesk senior analyst James Van Straten. Since then, these returns have fallen to just 2%, underscoring weaker demand for BTC from US investors. That coincided with heavy outflows from US spot bitcoin ETFs, with investors pulling over $1.6 billion in the past four sessions.
Jasper De Maere, desk strategist at crypto trading firm Wintermute, noted a recent spike in stablecoin redemptions for fiat, signaling that some institutional players who had re-entered the market earlier this year may now be backing off.
