Bitcoin price today: dips to $92k as Fed cut doubts spark risk-off mood

Investing.com-- Bitcoin plunged below $90,000 on Tuesday for the first time in nearly seven months before slightly rebounding, as uncertainty over the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate path and caution around delayed economic data dampened demand for riskier assets.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency last traded 2.6% lower at $92,482.0 as of 09:40 ET (14:40 GMT).

Bitcoin dropped to as low as $89,409.0 in the last 24 hours, pulling it about 30% below its late-October peak above $126,000.

The decline accelerated after Bitcoin failed to hold support around $94,000 and triggered a technical “death cross” on short-term versus long-term moving averages.

The U.S. government reopened last week following its longest-ever shutdown, and analysts argue the next round of macro data will be key for shaping investor sentiment. 

"If inflation and labor data show further cooling, a short-term rebound could follow; if not, markets are likely to stay range-bound and flow-driven heading into the weekend,” Iliya Kalchev, Nexo Dispatch Analyst, told Investing.com. 

Fed rate cut doubts spark risk-off mood

Investors have grown increasingly doubtful that the Fed will deliver a rate cut at its December meeting. Fed officials, including Chair Jerome Powell, have signalled reluctance to ease further, leaving investors unsure of the central bank’s next move.

Markets were also cautious because policymakers still lack sufficient data after weeks of delayed releases caused by the recent U.S. government shutdown.

The data backlog will begin to clear this week, with the September non-farm payrolls report scheduled for release on Thursday.

Bitcoin pressured by stalled ETF flows, liquidation waves

Weaker flows into spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have also contributed to the downturn, with institutional buyers stepping back as volatility rises.

Crypto-exposed equities and mining stocks have likewise fallen sharply, amplifying risk aversion across the digital-asset complex.

The move also follows a series of heavy liquidation waves across crypto derivatives markets, where billions of dollars in leveraged positions were unwound.

Data from major analytics firms showed that earlier this month, more than $19 billion in crypto positions were wiped out in a single 24-hour period, triggering forced selling.

Bitcoin last traded below $90,000 in late April. Its return to those levels underscores how rapidly investor confidence has deteriorated as markets reassess geopolitical risks and the timing of U.S. rate cuts.

Crypto sites down after major Cloudflare outage

Cloudflare was hit by a major network outage on Tuesday, disrupting the front-end services of a wide range of crypto platforms and several mainstream websites. The company, whose infrastructure underpins security, routing, and edge computing for millions of applications, saw parts of its global network fail.

Crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken were among those affected, as well as the big non-crypto websites and platforms, including ChatGPT, Spotify, and X. 

Cloudflare acknowledged the problem at around 11:48 a.m. UTC on its status page, calling it an “internal service degradation.” The company later said it had identified the issue and was rolling out a fix.

The outage coincided with scheduled maintenance at several Cloudflare data centers, though the firm has not said whether the two are linked and has yet to provide further details on the cause.

Crypto price today: altcoins slump mirroring Bitcoin moves

Most altcoins also saw extended sharp losses on Friday amid broader risk aversion.

World no.2 crypto Ethereum dropped 2.5% to $3,074.07.

World no. 3 crypto XRP fell 4.4% to $2.18.

Solana declined 2%, while Cardano slipped 5% and Polygon lost around 4%.

Among meme tokens, Dogecoin shed 3%, while $TRUMP edged 2% lower.

(Ayushman Ojha contributed to this report.)