Bitcoin pulls back to $94,300 as U.S. stocks sink, precious metals tumble

Bitcoin BTC$94,897.15 has continued a selloff begun yesterday, now having retraced a sizable chunk of this week’s early gains.

In mid-morning U.S. action on Friday, BTC was trading at $94,300, down another 1.3% over the past 24 hours after having slumped a similar amount on Thursday.

Ethereum’s ether ETH$3,281.74 declined the same amount, falling back to $3,200. The broad-market CoinDesk 20 Index lost 1.5% during the same period, with XRP$2.0434, APT$1.7712 and polygon (POL) down 3%-6%.

After trading for weeks in a very narrow range around the $90,000 area, bitcoin breaking higher to nearly $98,000 earlier this week excited the bulls, who imagined many who had bet on flat or lower prices would have to reverse those trades, possibly sending BTC back above $100,000. For now, at least, the opposite has happened, with bitcoin looking more likely to retest the low-$90,000 range.

Today’s declines came as gold and silver, both of which also enjoyed big rallies earlier this week, tumbled 1.2% and 5%, respectively. Key U.S. stock indexes — the Nasdaq, S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average — all reversed from early gains to modest losses in Friday trade.

Crypto miners defied the broader market downturn, continuing to benefit from investor optimism for the buildout of AI infrastructure. Riot (RIOT) surged over 10% on a leasing agreement deal with chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), while Cleanspark (CLSK), Cipher Mining (CIFR), Galaxy (GLXY), IREN followed suit with 5%-8% gains.