Bitcoin slipped to a one-week low as retail investors piled into gold, sending the metal to its highest price since June. The rotation comes as traders brace for Wednesday's US CPI print, with Bitcoin still capped below key resistance near $66,000.
Bitcoin (BTC) headed lower around Tuesday's Wall Street open as investors' appetite for gold sent the precious metal to nine-week highs. Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD abandoning a low-timeframe rebound to drop back below $64,000.
The pair finished down 1.5% on Monday on concerns over the US-Iran war and a fresh impasse over reopening the Strait of Hormuz oil route. US stocks tracked sideways as oil prices surged 5% on the same worries.
Retail investors pile into gold ETFs
As uncertainty grew, demand for safe-haven gold pushed the metal to $4,435 per ounce on Tuesday, its highest level since June 5. Trading resource The Kobeissi Letter flagged particular interest from the retail sector, currently a key missing component in crypto markets.
The SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) exchange-traded fund attracted daily retail inflows of $50 million on Aug. 5, the highest single-day tally since mid-March for the largest US physical gold-backed ETF. The day's total inflow reached $637 million. US spot Bitcoin ETFs, meanwhile, saw a combined inflow of $244.4 million the same day.
Despite lackluster August performance, Bitcoin retained its positive correlation to gold on a 90-day rolling basis, according to onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant. CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju wrote on X: "Bitcoin–gold correlation is back to digital-gold-era levels."
Familiar resistance holds as CPI nears
Within low time frames, BTC/USD continued to be contained by the 50-month exponential moving average (EMA), currently at $65,827. Since the start of June, the pair has managed just three daily closes above the 50-month EMA.
Market participants are watching the zone below $66,000 as rangebound behavior continues. Wednesday brings the first of this week's key risk-asset catalysts: the US Consumer Price Index print for July. Crypto markets have historically weakened heading into major US inflation data, while July's soft print sparked daily gains of over 4%.
Source: Cointelegraph.com News
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