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Bitcoin Tumbles to $53K, Ether Turns Negative for 2024 as Panic Grips Markets
Japan's Nikkei fell more than another 6% early Monday, bringing that index's three-day decline to about 15%.
Updated Aug 5, 2024, 1:54 a.m. Published Aug 5, 2024, 1:29 a.m.
A broad weekend selloff in crypto accelerated during Sunday evening U.S. hours, sending bitcoin plunging to levels not seen since February and ether back to prices not seen since December.
Bitcoin is lower by 12% over the past 24 hours and 20% on a week-over-week basis. Now down 21% over the past 24 hours and 30% over the past week, ether has given up the entirety of its year-to-date gain, and is off by roughly 3% since Jan. 1.
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The broader CoinDesk 20 Index is down 12% over the past 24 hours.
The trigger for what's now become a massive correction in crypto and traditional markets just might have been the Bank of Japan, which last week hiked its benchmark interest rate. That monetary tightening sent the yen shooting higher and the country's Nikkei stock index tumbling. Down another 6% early Monday, the Nikkei is now lower by roughly 15% over the past three sessions and 20% from a mid-July peak.
The action in Japan spread to the U.S., where the Nasdaq slid more than 5% in last week's final two sessions. Nasdaq futures are lower by 2.5% in Sunday evening action.
In addition to the Bank of Japan's somewhat unexpected hawkishness last week, the U.S. Federal Reserve also surprised a few – not by holding rates steady, but instead by appearing somewhat ambivalent about cutting rates in September, which nearly all market participants assumed was a sure thing.
The Federal Reserve was too slow to raise rates. Now it is too slow to lower them.
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) August 5, 2024
Whether the Fed made a policy error remains to be seen, but markets are setting their own agenda at the moment. Traders have priced in a 100% chance of lower U.S. base rates in September, with a 71% chance of 50 basis points in rate cuts and just a 29% chance of a 25 basis point move.
Looking further out on the maturity curve, the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield has tumbled to 3.75% on Sunday evening versus 4.25% just one week ago and a full 150-175 basis points less than the current fed funds target of 5.25%-5.50%.
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Crypto Markets Today: Bitcoin Stuck in Post-Fed Range as Altcoins Slump Deepens
Bitcoin remains trapped in a range despite the U.S. rate cut, while altcoins and memecoins struggle to attract risk appetite amid shifting investor behavior.
What to know:
- BTC briefly dipped below $90,000 after Wednesday's 25 basis-point U.S. rate cut before rebounding, but price action lacked a clear fundamental catalyst.
- Tokens such as JUP, KAS and QNT posted double-digit weekly losses, while CoinMarketCap’s altcoin season index fell to a cycle low of 16/100.
- CoinDesk’s Memecoin Index is down 59% year-to-date versus a 7.3% decline in the CD10, highlighting a shift from retail-driven hype to more institutionally led, slower-moving markets.
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