Investing.com — had ticked slightly lower on Tuesday, and was nursing a four-day losing streak that could potentially turn into five, as risk sentiment took a hit amid no signs of progress in U.S. and Iran peace talks and a global bond sell-off.
Bitcoin was last down 0.2% to $76,985.7 by 17:30 ET (21:30 GMT). It had climbed above $82,000 last week on resilient ETF inflows and after the U.S. Senate advanced key legislation.
“The world’s largest cryptocurrency continues to trade within a complex macro environment where ETF inflows, regulatory developments, and institutional accumulation remain supportive, while geopolitical tensions, inflation concerns, and broader risk-off sentiment continue generating sharp swings in price action,” IG analysts said in a recent note.
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Trump delays Iran hit, says attack was only an ’hour away’
The U.S. and Iran remain mired in an impasse, with no signs of a breakthrough on any agreement to end hostilities despite President Donald Trump saying he would delay a planned attack on the nation.
Trump said the move followed requests from three Gulf leaders. The president claimed in a social media post that “serious negotiations are now taking place,” adding that, “in the opinion” of the Gulf authorities, a “Deal will be made, which will be very acceptable to the United States of America, as well as all Countries in the Middle East, and beyond.”
He said the agreement would include “NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS FOR IRAN!” — although he flagged that he had ordered the U.S. military to remain prepared to launch a “full, large scale assault on Iran, on a moment’s notice” if an accord was not reached.
Trump on Tuesday told reporters that he was “an hour away” from striking Iran on Monday. “It would have been happening right now,” the president said.
“I had made the decision. So they called up, they had heard I made the decision, they said ’Sir, could you give a couple of more days because we think they’re being reasonable,’” Trump said, referring to the Gulf leaders who had requested him to delay his attack.
The president said he was going to give Iran “two or three days” to come to the table to make a peace deal. “Maybe Friday, Saturday, Sunday, something, maybe early next week. A limited period of time,” Trump added.
Iran’s state media on Tuesday said Tehran had sent a peace proposal to the U.S. which would stop hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and seek reparations for damage caused by the conflict.
However, Reuters said that Iran’s latest offer did not appear to be substantially different from prior terms that Trump described as “garbage” last week, citing a Pakistani source.
Bitcoin was also under pressure on Tuesday as bond sell-off resumed both at home and across the globe. Yields have soared across the world and several benchmark instruments have set “highest ever” milestones as traders have raised their expectations of interest rate hikes by central banks to combat the inflationary shock emerging from surging oil prices. Higher interest rates generally tend to bode poorly for speculative assets like cryptocurrencies.
The bond market rout comes at a time of transition for the Federal Reserve, which is awaiting the swearing in of new chair Kevin Warsh, picked by Trump to succeed Jerome Powell.
Crypto price today: altcoins mostly lower in rangebound trade
Most altcoins traded in tight ranges on Tuesday, trending to the downside.
World no.2 crypto Ethereum fell 0.9% to $2,118.92.
World no. 3 crypto XRP slid 2.4% to $1.3609.
Solana and Cardano shed 1.2% each.
Among meme tokens, Dogecoin slipped 1.4%.
Ayushman Ojha and Vahid Karaahmetovic contributed to this article
