Bitcoin fell nearly 1% in the past 24 hours, trading near the $88,000 (£63,690) mark, as markets digested the US Federal Reserve’s decision to keep interest rates steady at Wednesday’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.
Read more: London rose as traders digested mixed US earnings and the Fed’s rate hold
The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization (BTC-USD) has been trending lower since hitting a local peak of around $97,000 on Jan. 15, amid a broad shift by investors to traditional safe-haven assets.
Read more: Crypto live prices
Gold (GC=F) climbed to a fresh all-time high on Thursday, trading just above $5,600 an ounce, while silver (SI=F) pushed towards $120, as investors sought refuge in precious metals amid renewed geopolitical and economic uncertainty. The change comes alongside a weaker US dollar, which is down 2.13% year to date, strengthening demand for alternative stores of value.
Total cryptocurrency market capitalization now stands at $3.07 trillion, down 1.1% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.
Mamadou Quidjim Toure, founder of fintech platform Ubuntu Tribe, told Yahoo Finance that investors are reassessing the role of Bitcoin (BTC-USD) in portfolios as macro conditions evolve.
“As the financial landscape evolves, investors are increasingly shifting from bitcoin (BTC-USD) to gold (GC=F), and for good reason,” Toure said.
“Gold has shown extraordinary resilience and consistent growth, especially in a challenging market environment. While Bitcoin struggled to meet its growth promises last year, gold achieved a remarkable 72% increase, surpassing the $5,000 per ounce milestone in 2025.”
Read more: Gold prices pushed to $5,500 amid weaker dollar
Touré said the shift reflected a deeper structural trend rather than a short-term market reaction, pointing to sustained central bank demand for physical gold (GC=F).
“Central banks have systematically stockpiled more than 1,000 tons of gold annually in recent years,” he said. “The volatility of gold is three to three and a half times lower than that of bitcoin, which provides reassurance to investors looking for stability.”
Bitcoin’s (BTC-USD) move lower follows Wednesday’s decision by the US Federal Reserve to keep interest rates steady, after it delivered three consecutive quarter-point cuts to keep the benchmark federal funds rate within the 3.5%-3.75% range, showing signs of weakness in the labor market.
Fabian Dori, chief investment officer at Signum Bank, said the meeting confirmed the holding pattern rather than signaling a meaningful policy change.
Read more: Will Bitcoin price sink to $50,000 or fall to $125,000 in 2026?
“With growth still strong, inflation slowly easing, and the labor market firming, the Fed left rates unchanged and reiterated a data-dependent, meeting-by-meeting approach,” Dorey told Yahoo Finance. “As a result, the focus was less on the decision and more on how confident the Fed was about the path forward.”
He added that while Fed decisions are always likely to reinforce consolidation rather than trigger decisive market moves, political pressures now emerge as a potential future risk.
“Whether the growing political overhang around Fed independence starts to show up more clearly in Fed communications and how market pricing policy is at risk remains to be seen,” Dorey said.
Wennie Cai, COO of decentralized derivatives exchange SunFutures, said the Fed’s pause reflected recognition that financial conditions were already tightening, prompting a broader repricing of risk assets.
Read more: Why stablecoins can power an AI agent economy
“The result has been volatility in commodities and real assets, while speculative growth trades have declined,” Cai said. “Capital is moving toward cash flow, yield, and balance-sheet sustainability.”
In crypto markets, Cai described the situation as calm but healthy. “Bitcoin (BTC-USD) dominance has soared to close to 60%, institutional gains have stalled, and derivatives activity has shifted to options rather than permanent futures,” she said. “This indicates a shift towards hedged exposure rather than direct directional bets.”
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