Bitcoin Below $82,000 on Wavering Risk Appetite
By Joseph WilkinsBitcoin traded below $82,000 on Tuesday as wavering appetite for risk assets capped its recovery from last week's losses.The flagship cryptocurrency was broadly flat at $81,887, giving back gains made early Monday when it briefly crossed the $83,000 mark aided by lower oil prices and Treasury yields.Last week saw fears of interest rate hikes and concerns around artificial-intelligence spending ripple through equity markets, with bitcoin caught up in the broader selloff. A modest recovery in equity markets in turn gave cryptocurrencies support to bounce back from their recent weakness."The rebound is mostly an interest rate story," said Sam Roberts, head of investment consulting at U.K. pension solutions provider Cartwright. "Treasury yields have come back from their October peak and bitcoin's price has steadied with them. Last week's low forced out a large volume of leveraged long positions."But cryptocurrency investors remain on edge, as metrics show that new buyers of bitcoin remain in short supply. Last week saw bitcoin ETFs track net outflows of $228.4 million, according to data from Coinglass."Renewed buying has helped stabilize market sentiment, but the foundations of the recovery remain fragile as interest rate pressures persist and investment flows have yet to improve meaningfully," wrote Linh Tran, market analyst at multi-asset broker XS.com, in a note.Write to Joseph Wilkins at [email protected]