Bitcoin (BTC) Slide Continues on Monday, Hurt by Bearish Price Action and Struggling U.S. Stocks

Falling to about $93,900 as stocks closed, bitcoin is down 1.9% in the last 24 hours. Ether (ETH) is lower by 5.9% over the same time frame.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell further on Monday as U.S. stocks struggled to pull out of their recent downturn.

Cryptocurrency prices fell Monday evening as stocks closed mixed following an attempted rally.

Bitcoin was trading down 1.9% over the past 24 hours to about $93,900 as stocks closed. Ether (ETH) fell 5.9% over the same time frame. The broader CoinDesk 20 Index was down 5.1%.

Of the major cryptos, solana (SOL) fared the worst, down nearly 10% over the past 24 hours and a whopping 41% over the past month.

Besides its role in what appears to be a fading memecoin craze, SOL is also facing token unlocks in March and a 30% increase in SOL inflation due to the recent implementation of SIMD-96, which adjusted the network’s fee structure. At $151 at press time, SOL has now more than given up its post-election gains.

“Trying to communicate to folks who may be feeling complacency/denial that $95,000 is still not a bad exit price relative to where I think we could trade in 6-12 months,” Quinn Thompson, founder of Lekker Capital, a crypto hedge fund that specializes in using macroeconomic data for its trades, said on social media.

Thompson went on to estimate that there was an 80% chance that bitcoin won’t make new highs over the next three months and a 51% chance we won’t see new highs for even the next 12 months.

In traditional markets, risks to the labor market are growing, according to Neil Dutta, head of economic research at Renaissance Macro Research.

Real incomes are slowing down, the housing market is getting worse, state and local governments are pulling back on spending. Meanwhile, market consensus sees no economic slowdown in sight, with GDP median forecast at roughly 2.5%.

“If 2023 was about being surprised to the upside, there is more risk in 2025 of being surprised to the downside,” Dutta said.

“A passive tightening of monetary policy is the dominant risk and that has important implications for financial market investors,” Dutta said. “I would anticipate a decline in longer-term interest rates and a selloff in equity prices as risk appetite wanes. For the economy, expect conditions to deteriorate in the jobs market.”