Bitcoin Slides as Wall Street Risk Pullback Tests Bullish Turn

(Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin fell as much as 2.3% toward the lower end of its recent trading range, caught in a broader retreat from risk assets even as crypto analysts have turned sharply more bullish on the token.

The largest digital asset traded around $81,500. Crypto markets weakened as hotter inflation data and a renewed selloff in chipmakers hit appetite for speculative trades across markets. The Nasdaq 100 dropped as much as 2%, the dollar rose to its highest level since May 2025 and traders lifted bets on further Federal Reserve rate hikes after September consumer prices rose at the fastest pace since April.

The move cut against a sharp shift in crypto sentiment. A CryptoQuant report Wednesday showed Bitcoin’s 30-day analyst consensus index rising from minus 18.3 in July to plus 49.2, with the share of bullish analysts climbing to 84% from 37%.

“Global financial market conditions are pretty tough right now,” said Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise Asset Management.  

A little more than a year after a historic crypto market crash that wiped out a record $19 billion in leveraged bets in a single day, market bellwether Bitcoin remains more than 30% below its record high. Attempts at a sustained rally have repeatedly faltered and traders have been slow to rebuild the leveraged positions that once powered crypto’s biggest booms. 

High inflation, high energy prices “all of those restrict global monetary liquidity. And then you have mounting concerns about hyperscalers and AI, and that raising concerns about risk assets,” Hougan said. “But I think we put in a bottom in June, and we’ll probably end the year higher than where we are today.”

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