Bitcoin dips back below US$90,000 as global selloff deepens

BITCOIN slid to its lowest level in more than a week, tracking a sharp selloff across global financial markets as investors continued to de-risk amid ongoing geopolitical tensions.

The largest cryptocurrency fell below US$90,000 for the first time since Jan 9, moving in tandem with declines in equities, long-dated Treasuries and Japanese bonds as volatility rippled through debt markets.

After falling as much as 4 per cent on Tuesday, Bitcoin continued to slide on Wednesday morning in Asia. It was down 0.5 per cent to US$88,894 as of 9.27 am in Singapore.

Ninety-thousand has “proven to be a critical level that we’ve seen hold as support since the early days of the year and is likely an important inflection point in the short term,” said Karim Dandashy, an over-the-counter trader at crypto trading firm Flowdesk.

Small, less liquid tokens fell more, with Ether dropping more than 7 per cent and Solana slumping 5.3 per cent. Shares in crypto-linked stocks also slumped. Coinbase Global fell 5.6 per cent, while Bitcoin accumulator Strategy slumped almost 8 per cent.  

Financial markets have tumbled after President Donald Trump threatened the postwar order by asserting US dominance of the Western hemisphere, throwing the European and American alliance in disarray by vowing to take over Greenland. Japanese bonds plunging on concerns over the country’s finances. 

“Bitcoin’s sharp drop over the weekend mirrors a broader exodus from risk assets in traditional macro markets due to the White House’s threat of tariffs on European nations as well as geopolitical frictions over Greenland,” said Shiliang Tang, managing partner of Monarq Asset Management.

“Gold and Silver’s rally as well as the dollar’s weakness all underscore this narrative of capital fleeing to safety triggered by aggressive US posturing.”

Japanese bonds also tumbled, with yields on 30- and 40-year securities jumping more than 25 basis points. The move followed comments from Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who pledged tax cuts on food as part of her election campaign, sparking concern over looser fiscal policy and increased government spending.

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At the same time, Michael Saylor’s Strategy announced on Tuesday that it acquired almost US$2.13 billion in Bitcoin over the previous eight days, making its largest Bitcoin purchase since July. 

“Today’s news MSTR‘s largest purchase in 7 months suggests there’s still significant retail and institutional appetite for Bitcoin exposure through equity wrappers,” said Jake Ostrovskis, head of over-the-counter trading at Wintermute. “We’re seeing BTC outperform ETH on the session on this news.” 

Crypto investors poured around US$1.2 billion into the roughly dozen US-listed Bitcoin ETFs so far this year, which had initially helped propel the token’s price higher following last year’s market swoon. BLOOMBERG