Bitcoin is down about 1% this Thursday (5), trading at $104,812, while major altcoins deepen losses on a negative day for risk assets, amid the start of the implementation of higher U.S. tariffs on steel and the release of weak economic indicators. In reais, BTC is quoted at R$ 592,759.
XRP and the token of the smart contracts network Solana are down 2.6% and 2.9%, respectively, while the popular memecoin Dogecoin shows a decline of 3.5%.
“The global macroeconomic scenario has not been helpful,” said Mark Connors, chief investment strategist at the Bitcoin Risk Dimensions consultancy, to Decrypt. He mentioned the recent escalation of the war in Ukraine and tariffs on steel as “some of the obstacles.”
However, Connors added that “any movement within a range of 3% to 5% for BTC is difficult to attribute to a single factor.”
Cryptocurrency markets have been showing weak performance over the last two weeks, following a rally in early May. This occurred because the Trump administration did not fulfill its promise to back down in the trade war and instead adopted a more aggressive rhetoric, while other macroeconomic uncertainties resurfaced.
The administration increased tariffs on steel and aluminum. Meanwhile, the latest ADP jobs report showed that employers added only 37,000 jobs in May in the U.S. — well below the projected 115,000 — and the widely monitored non-manufacturing PMI index fell to 49.9%. This was only the fourth time since the 2020 recession that this index dropped below the 50% mark, which indicates stability.
On Wednesday (4), U.S. President Donald Trump declared that Russia would retaliate against Ukraine for a devastating drone attack that occurred earlier in the week, further escalating tensions in that critical geopolitical scenario.
The stock markets had mixed performance: the Nasdaq, with a strong presence of technology companies, rose slightly, while the S&P 500 — which also has a large weight from the technology sector — remained virtually stable. Gold, considered a protective asset, experienced a slight decline.
Despite widespread declines, Ethereum has accumulated a 4% appreciation over the last two weeks, even with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in negative territory during the period, and it has already risen 45% for the month.
ETFs tracking the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value attracted nearly $190 million in investments — rarely surpassing Bitcoin ETFs.