Bitcoin slid to just below $77,000, down nearly 2% over 24 hours, after August producer prices rose 5.4% against a 5.1% forecast and pushed 30-year Treasury yields to a 19-year high.
The CoinDesk 20 fell about 3%, nearly twice bitcoin’s loss, and 95 of the CoinDesk 100 ended the session lower, according to CoinDesk data.
Traders spent Thursday repricing next week’s Federal Reserve meeting toward an increase.
Zcash led the losses, dropping roughly 12% to about $1,134 and unwinding part of a run that still leaves it up about 34% on the week and nearly 145% over a month. Hyperliquid’s HYPE fell roughly 7% to just under $79, stretching its weekly loss to about 10%. Dogecoin shed about 6% to 8 cents. $XRP dropped about 3% to $1.34 and is down nearly 7% over seven days, while solana broke $100 to trade just under that level, off more than 3%.
Ether held up better than most, down nearly 2% at about $2,445 for a weekly decline under 3%. BNB slipped a little over 1% to roughly $710. Tron was the lone major to hold, flat at 34 cents and up more than 3% on the week.
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.
Brent crude ripped above $107 a barrel, up more than 6%, with West Texas Intermediate near $102, an energy shock that feeds straight 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 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.
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.