Cryptocurrencies were broadly lower on Thursday, with the selloff picking up steam in the early U.S. evening hours.
Bitcoin
slipped more than 2.5% over the past 24 hours to $105,900, but the declines were far steeper in altcoins, with ether , solana , XRP and dogecoin among those tokens sporting 5%-7% drops.
Risk assets in general got off to a poor start Thursday as President Trump threatened renewed tariff measures as the early July deadline for trade deals begins to get near.
In addition, with nuclear negotiations with Iran not going well, there were boosted fears of Israeli strikes against Iranian nuclear sites.
โLook, thereโs a chance of massive conflict,โ Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday. โWe have a lot of American people in this area, and I said, weโve got to tell them to get out, because something could happen soon, and I donโt want to be the one that didnโt give any warning and missiles are flying.โ
โI donโt want to say imminent, but it looks like itโs something that could very well happen,โ Trump said about Israel potentially striking Iran. He stated that he had advised against an attack while negotiations were ongoing.
While U.S. stocks were able to shake off the headlines and close with modest gains, cryptos werenโt so lucky.
Green shoots?
The rally in risk assets โ crypto included โ over the past several weeks has taken place amid a U.S. Federal Reserve seemingly determined not to ease monetary policy for the foreseeable future.
And yet, there continue to be signs that weak economic data may soon force the Fedโs hand โ a far slowed pace of employment gains and weaker inflation numbers among them. Two more data points arrived Thursday in Mayโs Producer Price Index, which came in softer than forecast on both the headline and core levels, and initial jobless claims, which unexpectedly matched last weekโs multi-month high of 248,000.
Continuing jobless claims rose to 1.956 million, the third consecutive gain and the highest level since November 2021.
President Trump continued his crusade to goad Fed Chair Jerome Powell into a more dovish posture, calling him a โnumbskullโ for not cutting rates. โI may have to force something,โ threatened Trump. Powellโs term as Fed boss doesnโt end until 2026 and the president had previously said firing him prior to that was not an option.
