Bitcoin falls bellow $89,000 as rally attempt fizzles despite trade war risk relief

Bitcoin $BTC$88,976.13 and other cryptocurrencies failed to keep any momentum from Wednesday afternoon's Greenland-related relief rally.

After a couple of brief moves above $90,000 over the past 18 hours, $BTC has quickly pulled back to $88,500, down 1.5% over the past 24 hours. Ether ETH$2,942.06 is now below $3,000, lower by 2.5%.

Most crypto stocks were in the red as well, even as broader equities moved higher, with the Nasdaq ahead 0.7%. Bullish (BLSH), Hut 8 (HUT), Galaxy Digital (GLXY), and XXI (XXI) were all lower by 2%-4%.

“The consensus view is that crypto markets are bearish until about September," said Kaledora Fontana, CEO of Ostium, which facilitates the trading of digitized commodities perpetual swaps. "A lot of that is driven by expectations that rate cuts won’t come until after a Fed Chair transition, and even then, it takes time for that to filter through to risk-on assets. There’s a sense that meaningful upside only comes after policy changes have had time to work through the system.”

Even though bitcoin is struggling to hold the $90,000 level and is only marginally positive for the year, there are small signs of a modest risk appetite. This is evident in the Strategy (MSTR) to BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) ratio.

On a day when bitcoin is trading lower, the MSTR-to-IBIT ratio is slightly positive and is up roughly 5% year to date, indicating a taste for what Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor calls "amplified bitcoin." The ratio also appears to have broken its long-term downward trend that had been in place since July.