Bitcoin slipped to a session low of $85,500 on Tuesday as traders rotated capital into Bitcoin Cash and Zcash, with BCH jumping 28% after CME Group said it will list futures on the token. Rising Treasury yields and a firmer oil market added pressure, while Bloomberg Intelligence's Mike McGlone warned bitcoin could still reverse back toward $60,000.
Money rotates into BCH and ZEC
Bitcoin Cash surged 28% to nearly $349 over 24 hours, the largest move among sizeable tokens. CME Group said Monday it will list Bitcoin Cash and Uniswap futures from Oct. 19. Meanwhile, Zcash rose 9% to just above $1,646, and XRP gained 3% to nearly $1.59, while TRX fell 2%.
The leading cryptocurrency itself traded around $85,800, down under 1% over 24 hours after matching Monday's intraday high near $87,300 and meeting the same selling into it. Alex Kuptsikevich, senior analyst at FxPro, said in an email to CoinDesk: "there has previously been a slowdown but not a reversal in BTC", adding that pullbacks have attracted new buyers who had kept money out of the risky crypto market.
Oil and yields add pressure
WTI crude rallied more than $2 a barrel from session lows, trading up 0.5% on the day at $90.93 a barrel, with much of the move coming in the final minutes of the session. The move helped push the U.S. two-year Treasury yield to a new cycle high of 4.79%, with odds of an October rate hike rising to more than 53%. Bitcoin slipped to a session low of $85,500 as the yield move played out.
Separately, a wallet holding 600 bitcoin that had not moved since July 2012 transferred the coins, worth about $51.9 million, to a new address on Monday. The coins were not sent to a known exchange address, and the transfer appears to be a migration to a Native SegWit wallet rather than a liquidation.
McGlone flags a possible reversal toward $60,000
Bitcoin has climbed back above $86,000, but Bloomberg Intelligence senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone warns the recovery could face another sharp reversal, pointing to high Treasury yields and weaker support from stocks. McGlone sees bitcoin caught between the $100,000 area and a potential return toward $60,000, comparing bitcoin's move above $100,000 in January 2025 to crude oil's rise above $100 a barrel before its 2008 decline. He noted the 10-year Treasury yield has moved toward 5%, giving institutions an income-generating alternative to bitcoin.
CryptoQuant founder Ki Young Ju sees a more controlled cycle, expecting bitcoin to rise 3x to 5x rather than repeat the 10x-plus rallies of earlier cycles, citing bitcoin's larger market size and growing institutional ownership. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded around $1.71 billion in inflows over two days, led by BlackRock and Fidelity, after bitcoin recently climbed above $86,000, its highest level in eight months.
Sources: CoinDesk, Coinpedia Fintech News
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