Bitcoin Regains Ground to Reach $25.2K, but Investors Remain Jittery About U.S. Economy, Monetary Policy
Tether’s USDT stablecoin deviated from its $1 peg, while other major cryptos spend their day in red territory.
A day after bitcoin dipped to a three-month low, crypto investors remained jittery, keeping bitcoin and most major altcoins in the doldrums and knocking Tether’s USDT stablecoin from its $1 peg.
Bitcoin was recently trading at $25,239, roughly flat over the past 24 hours after spending most of Thursday in negative territory. On Wednesday BTC tumbled below this threshold for the first time since mid-March, according to CoinDesk Indices, as markets recoiled from a recommitment to monetary hawkishness from the Federal Reserve even as the central bank paused interest rate hikes for the first time in 14 months. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap had been traveling closer to $26,000 for weeks.
Ether, the second largest crypto in market value, was similarly sluggish to recently change hands at about $1,655, also about flat from Wednesday, same time. Similar to BTC, ETH hit a three-month low on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Tether’s USDT stablecoin deviated from its $1 dollar peg early Thursday (ET) amid a sell-off on the popular Uniswap and Curve pools. USDT dropped as low as $0.9968, according to CoinMarketCap data. The token was recently trading at $0.999.
Read More:
“This has been a very nervous time, with a lot of regulatory concerns now being compounded into concerns about Tether,” Riyad Carey, a research analyst at digital assets data provider , wrote to CoinDesk in a Twitter message. “Its depeg this morning has severely rattled markets, given that its dominance has increased significantly in the past few months.”
Carey added: “It was yet another consequence of falling liquidity; a big reason for its depeg was the massive outflow of liquidity from the (Curve) 3pool.”
Among other cryptos with the largest market caps, MATIC, the token of the smart contracts platform Polygon, recently plunged more than 5%. The U.S. Securities and Exchange (SEC) mentioned MATIC among 19 cryptos in its lawsuits against crypto exchange giants Binance and Coinbase last week. The, a measure of crypto markets performance, was recently down nearly 3%.
Cryptos’ fade over the past two days continued its decoupling path from U.S. equities, which rose on Thursday as investors drew confidence from encouraging economic indicators, including a May retail report showing that consumers had boosted their spending for groceries and electronics, among other categories. The data suggested that the economy was not quickly headed for a feared recession. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite and SP 500 rose 1.1% and 1.3%, respectively.
Read More:
In an email to CoinDesk, Vineeth Bhuvanagiri, managing director of, a founding entity of the Cardano blockchain, wrote that bitcoin’s decline in the current “crab market” was to be expected.
“After all, since October, we saw BTC and other major coins experience huge gains following the crash that happened earlier last year,” he wrote. “And looking ahead, we’ll likely be trending between the lows of October and the highs of this last April.”
Crab markets describe conditions in which prices fluctuate around the same level for periods.
Bhuvanagiri compared the current market climate to 2019. “Back then, we had big ups and downs within a certain range. Those who had remained on Crypto Twitter were going from slight euphoria to hints of depression, over and again. Then DeFi summer kicked off in 2020, and everything changed.”
He sounded a cautious note about rate hike uncertainties, declining economic growth and potential challenges for the banking sector – a toxic combination that could continue to unsettle crypto markets. “It’s not hard to imagine a scenario in which the markets essentially have to get juiced again,” he wrote. “For most market participants, then, the strategy is likely one of survival until the macro turns and during what will inevitably be a volatile half year or so.”
Read More:
Edited by James Rubin.
Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
You may also like
XRP Update: Digitap's Practical Applications Put XRP's Delayed Ambitions to the Test
- Digitap ($TAP) raised $1.4M in November 2025, outpacing rivals like Bitcoin Hyper and Pepenode with an 80% early investor discount. - The project combines crypto and fiat banking via a live app, Visa cards, and deflationary tokenomics, positioning it as XRP's real-world competitor. - $TAP's fixed 2B token supply and transaction-burning model create scarcity, with analysts projecting 50x-70x price growth by late 2026. - Digitap's 124% APR staking rewards and privacy-focused features like offshore-shielded

Vitalik Buterin Unveils a Fresh ZK Perspective and What It Means for the Crypto Industry
- Vitalik Buterin's GKR protocol revolutionizes ZK scalability, slashing verification costs by 10-15x and enabling ZKsync's 15,000 TPS with near-zero fees. - ZKsync's 150% token surge and institutional adoption by Citibank highlight ZK's market potential, while Starknet and Immutable expand use cases in DeFi and gaming. - Despite progress, Ethereum's modexp bottleneck and regulatory scrutiny of privacy coins like Zcash underscore technical and compliance challenges for ZK's long-term viability.

Vitalik Buterin Backs ZKsync: Accelerating Ethereum Layer 2 Expansion and Driving DeFi Growth
- Vitalik Buterin endorsed ZKsync's Atlas upgrade, praising its transformative potential for Ethereum's scalability and DeFi. - The upgrade's unified liquidity framework enables real-time settlements and near-zero fees, attracting 30+ institutions like Citibank. - ZKsync's TVL lags behind competitors, but ZK token's 30x trading volume surge reflects investor confidence in its tokenomics overhaul. - Institutional adoption and Buterin's support highlight ZKsync's role in bridging DeFi and traditional finance

Stellar News Today: XLM Battles at $0.2705—Major Players and Sellers Face Off at Crucial Resistance
- Stellar's XLM token saw volatile trading on Nov. 7, with price consolidating near $0.2702 after hitting key resistance at $0.2777 amid surging institutional volume. - Coordinated institutional buying of 2.5M and 1.5M tokens reversed bearish momentum, defending $0.2663 support while confirming $0.2777 resistance through 45.09M-token volume spikes. - Market remains divided as XLM struggles to break above $0.2815, with analysts warning renewed selling pressure could accelerate declines below $0.2709 amid mi
