Bitcoin turns negative for 2026 as Trump's calming Greenland remarks fail to reverse slide

Bitcoin $BTC$89,109.82 is now negative on the year after falling below $87,500 in midday U.S. trading hours on Wednesday.

The largest cryptocurrency is down about 3% over the past 24 hours. $BTC earlier in the session had moved back above $90,000 as President Donald Trump — speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos — said the U.S. had no intention of taking Greenland by force. The president also expressed optimism about the ultimate passage of a crypto market structure bill.

Other major cryptocurrencies, such as ether ETH$2,967.91, $XRP $XRP$1.9088, and Solana SOL$127.56, are also continuing to see declines.

Traditional markets are off session highs, but still faring better than crypto on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 holding modest gains.

To the particular consternation of bitcoin bulls, precious metals remain very well bid, with gold up another 1.5% on Wednesday to a fresh record high above $4,800 per ounce. Silver is flat after soaring to its own record on Tuesday.

Growing tensions between the U.S. and its European allies over the fate of Greenland, combined with a Tuesday crash in Japan's government bond market, sent risk assets — crypto among them — sharply lower. While Japanese bonds (and stocks) recovered modestly on Wednesday, the shocks continue to be felt throughout the global financial system.

Well-followed crypto and global macro prognosticator Arthur Hayes called the sharp rise in Japanese government bond yields "the match” that could start a global risk-off cycle. “Let’s see how big the fire gets,” he added.