Bitcoin hovered near a critical technical threshold Thursday as risk assets sold off broadly on surging oil prices, rising Treasury yields, and mounting expectations for another Federal Reserve interest-rate hike.
Key Support Level in Focus
Bitget analyst Lewis Huang marked the line before the print, saying “$76,270 is an important technical support level.” Bitcoin is now less than $800 above it.
Energy Shock Ripples Through Markets
Brent crude ripped above $107 a barrel, up more than 6%, with West Texas Intermediate near $102. The energy shock feeds directly into the inflation data the Fed is watching. The 10-year Treasury yield pushed toward 5% and the two-year above 4.5%.
Gold slipped toward $4,330, the dollar index firmed near 99, and the S&P 500 closed lower at about 7,594, a fourth straight decline. Asian equity futures followed, with Japan down nearly 2%, Korea more than 3% and Hong Kong close to 1%.
Higher Real Yields Pressure Crypto
Higher real yields drain crypto through two channels at once. They make government debt competitive with an asset that pays nothing, and they raise the cost of carrying leverage.
U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs are already showing it, with $120 million of outflows on Wednesday, more than double Tuesday’s, while ether, $XRP and solana funds all took in money the same day.
CPI Data and Fed Expectations
August CPI lands at 8:30 a.m. ET, with headline inflation expected at 3.4% year over year and core at 2.4%. Interest rate futures put the odds of a hike at the Sept. 15-16 meeting near 70%, up from roughly a coin flip two weeks ago.
