Live updates: Bitcoin slips back to $77,000 after challenging $80,000 overnight

Spot bitcoin ETFs pulled in $606 million on Aug. 20 and ether funds $221 million, both bigger than the prior day, confirming the institutional bid behind bitcoin's run.

Crypto's rally may shift to altcoins, FalconX’s Joshua Lim says

Bitcoin’s rise could slow from here, with traders rotating into altcoins that have missed much of the rally, said FalconX head of derivatives Joshua Lim.

The crypto asset is now trading near $77,244 after leading the move higher from the $60,000 level that held for much of the summer. Lim said that strength could set up a “catch-up” trade in other cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is one example. Lim said traders are buying BCH for broader exposure to a rising crypto market. Strong price gains can also make weaker altcoin investment cases easier for portfolio managers and investment committees to defend.

That rotation is already showing up in Friday’s trading. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) led the market with a 31% gain over 24 hours, while Ethena (ENA) rose 27%. Pudgy Penguin’s native token, PENGU, and Pepe Coin (PEPE) gained roughly 20% while.

Broader measures have yet to show a full altcoin season. Bitcoin dominance stands at 59.8%, down just 0.1 percentage point, while CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index is 33 out of 100, down from 51 last week.

Behind the rally, Lim sees a larger change taking shape. Bitcoin’s role as a hedge against currency debasement has gained wider attention, while Treasury support for long-term bonds amounts to a form of easing, he said. Crypto has tended to benefit from easier financial conditions.

Retail traders, Korean investors and traditional finance firms that had turned toward AI, stocks and commodities are also returning, Lim said.

But momentum brings risk. Lim warned that during periods of market euphoria, prices can outrun fundamentals, complicating decisions about price targets and when to cut exposure.

Ray Dalio: Buy gold and bitcoin, sell bonds

Three recent events, wrote Ray Dalio on Friday — 1) Japan’s sale of U.S. government paper to support the yen and its capital markets, 2) U.S. bond yields hitting news highs alongside dollar weakness, 3) Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s attempts this week to lower or cap bond yields — are consistent with what was laid out in his book, How Countries Go Broke: The Big Cycle.

“I suggest diversifying well in asset classes and countries that have strong income statements and balance sheets and are not having great internal political and external geopolitical conflicts,” Dalio concluded. “Underweighting debt assets like bonds, and overweighting gold and a bit of bitcoin. Having a small percentage—maybe 10-15%—of one’s money in gold can reduce a portfolio’s risk, and I think it would also raise its return.”

Bets on imminent Fed rate hike are on the rise Friday

What was a quiet session in the bond market has gotten far less so in the last couple of hours.

Traders seem determined to put Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to the test, pushing government bond yields up despite his efforts this week to jawbone interest rates lower.

The 30-year Treasury yield is now up four basis points for the day to 5.28%, with the 10-year yield up 3.5 basis points to 4.73%.

Also interesting, the two-year yield is up a big 5.3 basis points to 4.24%. The short end of the curve is directly influenced by Federal Reserve policy, so the late-week jump in this yield suggests a rise in bets that the Fed will hike rates at one of its last three meetings of the year.

CME FedWatch now places the odds of a rate boost in September at more than 40%, up from just 33% one week ago. The odds of one or more Fed rate hikes at some point in 2026 have risen to 72%.

Equity markets don’t seem to mind. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 are both near session highs, each up 0.55%.

Bitcoin remains higher by just shy of 7% over the past 24 hours at $77,300.

Data center names slammed again as politicians run the other way

“Politicians Who Once Championed Data Centers Are Now Bashing Them,” read an above-the-fold headline in the WSJ on Friday.

With November quickly approaching, politicians across the country — on both sides of the aisle — have suddenly realized they can rack up votes by standing in the way of data center growth.

The story mentions a new University of Pennsylvania poll showing more than 60% of Americans oppose new data centers, up from just 49% in March.

We’ll leave the merits of the debate to others, but investors in data center operators (most of whom have exited bitcoin mining) continue to sell.

Hut 8 (HUT) is lower by another 8% on Friday and is now down by more than 40% since hitting a record high in early June. s do remain higher by about 60% year-to-date.

Also continuing to give back gains: Cipher Mining (CIFR) is down 8.8%, TeraWulf (WULF) 5%, CleanSpark (CLSK) 5%, and IREN (IREN) 3.1%.

With bitcoin possibly entering a new bull market, one wonders if next year’s story might be data center players migrating back to BTC mining.

Citadel has cashed in on its Situational Awareness profits

“To date, we have successfully shed more than 80% of the aggregate risk from the original portfolio,” read a letter from Ken Griffin to Citadel investors, as reported by CNBC’s Sara Eisen .