Bitcoin and Other Major Cryptocurrencies Decline Amid Inflation Data
Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies are in the red Friday, with top coins falling to their lowest prices in at least a week as stock markets are similarly rattled by hotter-than-expected inflation data.
The price of Bitcoin dipped to $83,609 early Friday afternoon, and is currently down about 4% on the day at a current price of $83,736. It’s down just 0.4% on the week, but the Friday slide has cooled rising momentum seen in recent days.
Other top coins have shown sharper losses over the past day, however, with Ethereum down 6% to $1,875 and XRP falling about 7% to $2.17. Both fell to weekly lows on Friday alongside Bitcoin.
Solana and Dogecoin are also in the red Friday, down 6% and 4.5% respectively over the past day, though both coins remain up over the last week.
Amid the declines, crypto liquidations have surged over the past day, tallying more than $450 million as of this writing per data from CoinGlass. Long positions make up the bulk of the carnage at $402 million, and Ethereum is the biggest contributor to liquidations with $136 million worth in total. Bitcoin is next at $118 million.
Both the Dow and S&P 500 indices are down more than 2% Friday, with traders reacting to continued inflation fears and the impact of Trump’s ever-evolving trade tariffs on other nations. The Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCE) rose 0.4% in February, as reported Friday—a higher market than expected and the biggest monthly leap in more than a year.
“Today’s price action shows that investors are not ready for a long-term tariff engagement by the U.S.,” Mark Connors, chief investment strategist for Bitcoin investment advisory Risk Dimensions, told Decrypt. “Portfolio managers are taking risk off the table to fight another day, until the impact of tariffs have greater clarity.”
Nvidia’s stock is down about 1.5% on the day, while the Nvidia-backed cloud computing firm CoreWeave—which began trading Friday—is down by about 1% as of this writing.
But crypto stocks are taking much harder hits than the broader markets, with Strategy (MSTR) down about 10% on the day and Coinbase falling by nearly 7% as of this writing.
Connors also noted the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s gloominess about GDP in the current quarter: “So today’s move validates what Atlanta Fed GDPNow forecast has versus what the Street has. That, to me, is the real signal out of today.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication with comment from an analyst.