Market News

BY Callum Keown

Another crypto rebound bites the dust. Digital assets enjoyed a strong start to the year but are quickly losing momentum.

The price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies fell on Thursday as digital assets lost momentum after a strong start to the year and there were major outflows from major U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Bitcoin -0.64% was down 0.1% at around $90,879, according to CoinDesk data as of 4 p.m Eastern time. Earlier this week it threatened the $95,000 milestone and reached its highest level since November. The world’s largest cryptocurrency off its record of above $126,000 reached in early October.

The weakness reflects “profit-taking as broader risk assets paused and traders looked ahead to key macro data,” IG analysts said in a note Thursday. The softness in cryptos also coincided with a fall for U.S. stock futures, including those on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index were lower ahead of the open.

“The cryptocurrency market has grown over the past week, but it is still in a downtrend and remains heavily dependent on Bitcoin due to its dominance,” analysts at crypto firm B2BINPAY said. “This means we need to stay extremely cautious as the market has been stuck in an uncertain phase for quite a long time,” they added.

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs posted $486m in net outflows on Wednesday, according to data from artificial intelligence-powered crypto research and investment platform SoSoValue. BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC products had the biggest movement with about $129m and $247m in outflows, respectively.

The December jobs report, due Friday, could shake cryptos from that uncertain phase—particularly if the data bolster hopes of a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut later