Bitcoin continued to lose ground on Friday, falling below a key average as risks remained on the defensive, sending Treasury yields down to multi-month lows.
The leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization fell below its 200-day simple moving average of around $107,500, extending losses to $106,900, CoinDesk data shows. Prices fell 7% for the week, following last week’s decline of 6.5%. Other tokens such as XRP, SOL and ETH also extended losses, taking their respective weekly declines to 9% to 12%.
BTC’s losses followed over $500 million in outflows from the US-listed spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) amid growing signs of liquidity stress in the financial system.
The price weakness is in line with bearish signals from technical charts suggesting the possibility of a dip below $100,000 in the coming days.
Futures tied to Wall Street’s benchmark stock index, the S&P 500, fell nearly 1%. The index was dragged down by bank stocks on Thursday after Zions Bancorp and Western Alliance Bancorp disclosed links to fraud-linked loan exposures, raising concerns of a larger fraud in the system.
The risk catalyzed demand for bonds, driving the US 10-year Treasury yield down to 3.94%, the lowest since April. Bond prices and interest rates move in the opposite direction.
Earlier this week, the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index fell 36 points to -12.8, indicating slowing activity and triggering concerns about the economy. It also increased demand for longer-term government bonds.
