Bitcoin dropped 0.8% over the past 24 hours to $66,120.5 by 08:48 ET (12:48 GMT). The token had fallen as low as $64,000 earlier in the week, as broader risk appetite soured.
An earthquake in Taiwan, worsening geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, and the threat of higher-for-longer U.S. interest rates kept traders largely biased towards the dollar and other safe-haven assets.
The dollar rose on Friday, while gold prices remained in sight of record highs hit earlier in the week.
A slew of hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials also weighed on risk appetite, as several members of the central bank warned that sticky inflation will keep the Fed from cutting interest rates early.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency was trading down about 3% over the past five days, setting it up for a weekly loss.
Bitcoin has floundered within a limited trading range after notching record highs of over $73,000 in March. This downturn coincided with weakness in the U.S. stock market and other major risk-driven assets, which clocked a weak start to the second quarter.
Capital flows into the recently approved Bitcoin exchange-traded funds were also seen slowing in recent weeks, as was trading activity in the space.
While the ETF approval was a key driver of Bitcoin’s gains earlier this year, this trend now appeared to be running out of steam.
But the key focus was on nonfarm payrolls data, which came above economists’ expectations.
The U.S. employment sector demonstrated strength once again as the government announced an addition of 303,000 jobs last month, smashing the projections of 200,000 and an adjustment of February’s figures from 275,000 to 270,000.
Moreover, the unemployment rate for March fell to 3.8%, better than the anticipated 3.9% and a decrease from February’s rate of 3.9%.
Nonfarm payroll numbers are closely followed by markets as they can notably influence the outlook for U.S. interest rates. Higher-for-longer rates bode poorly for Bitcoin, which usually thrives in low-rate, high-liquidity markets.
Among other cryptocurrency prices, Ethereum fell 2.6%, lagging its peers as the Securities and Exchange Commission prepared its decision on spot ETFs for the world no.2 cryptocurrency.
The SEC was also seen investigating whether Ethereum can be classified as a security.
Among other units, XRP dropped 0.7% as the outlook for the token remained bleak with the SEC’s case against Ripple now set to proceed in April.
In March, crypto derivatives trading reached an all-time high with $6.18 trillion in volume on centralized exchanges, as reported by CCData, a digital assets data provider. This volume was triple the total market cap of all cryptocurrencies.
Despite this growth, derivatives’ market share declined for the sixth month in a row, dropping to 67.8%, the lowest since December 2022.
This shift occurred as traders increasingly engaged in the spot market, exchanging cryptocurrencies immediately, leading to a 108% surge in spot trading volume to $2.94 trillion—the highest since May 2021. Together, spot and derivatives trading hit a record $9.12 trillion.
Source: Cryptocurrency - investing.com
