Bitcoin rebounded 8% from its overnight low as some investors bought its dip below $79,000, although the largest crypto by market value looked wobbly, along with other risk-on assets, after U.S. and Ukraine presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy clashed in the White House Friday. The top cryptocurrency was recently trading above $84,500, up nearly 1% over the past 24 hours but still off 18% from a month ago—and well off its all-time high over $108,000 set in mid-January. Analysts remain pessimistic about its near-term prospects.
“Bitcoin’s rebound from below $79K shows the resilience of dip-buying interest, especially with liquidity still strong in the crypto market,” Joe DiPasquale, CEO of crypto asset manager BitBull, wrote in a text to Decrypt. “However, broader risk sentiment remains fragile, and the renewed pullback aligns with weakness across equities and other risk assets following the geopolitical uncertainty out of Washington.” DiPasquale added: “While BTC has shown relative strength, macro-driven volatility is likely to persist in the near term.”
The crypto markets decline come as investors—fretful about spikes in inflation, a looming global trade war spurred by Trump administration tariffs, and other macroeconomic uncertainties—pull back from riskier assets, including major cryptocurrencies. A record $1.4 billion hack of the Bybit crypto exchange last Friday has further unsettled markets. Major digital assets have fallen substantially over the past month with Ethereum, the second-largest crypto by market cap, and its rival Solana, the sixth-biggest, off 28% and 36%, respectively. Meme coins, which helped fuel a run-up in prices earlier in the year, have also plunged.
Major equity indexes, which have struggled through a rough week, were again in the red after rallying earlier in the day following the tense meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy. The tech-heavy Nasdaq and S&P 500 were both down a few fractions of a percentage point. Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has remained a trouble spot for the global economy, unnerving energy markets and threatening to disrupt trade.
In an email to Decrypt, Sid Powell, CEO of blockchain-based institutional capital marketplace Maple, noted the “geopolitical uncertainty over Ukraine” and the unlikelihood of near-term interest rate cuts because of recent inflation readings. But he saw “medium-term positivity” stemming from regulators’ “pro-innovation posture,” among other reasons.
