Bitcoin falls to $66,000 as silver clears $85 and dollar extend declines

Crypto-exposed equities got slammed on Thursday, with Coinbase falling 6.3% to $152.28, tracking Bitcoin’s broader slide. Robinhood crashed 11.4% to $75.86, the worst drop among majors.

MicroStrategy dipped 3.3% to $128.57, while Block (formerly Square) slid 5.5% to $54.13. PayPal lost 2.8%, now at $40.34. Crypto infrastructure plays weren’t spared either; Galaxy Digital dropped 3.35%, Circle slid 4.7%, and Riot, Hut 8, and Core Scientific all posted smaller losses around 2-4%.

Even miners took a hit. Cipher Mining dropped 5.4%, Bitdeer fell 5.7%, and TeraWulf lost 4.6%. Meanwhile, Bitmine Immersion Technologies dropped 2.9%, and HIVE was down 2.8%.

Exodus Movement collapsed 6.1%, Gemini Space Station lost 5.4%, and Argo Blockchain cratered 11.5% on tiny volume. The only standout was Nano Labs, which rose 2.7% to $3.08.

This came even as the Dow edged down just 23 points, while the S&P 500 rose 0.1% and the Nasdaq slipped 0.2%, showing how sharply crypto names are decoupling from the broader equity market right now.

Bitcoin is trading at $66,592, down 4% on the day and now 47% below its October all-time high above $126,000.

The recent drop extends a month-long decline that began after the coin broke below $70K on Feb. 5 and briefly tested levels just above $60,000. That level is seen as key support, and while Bitcoin bounced, it’s been stuck between $66K and $72K ever since.

The Feb. 5 dump was triggered by a wave of forced liquidations, where traders had to unwind leveraged positions. That cascading effect made the fall worse, but liquidation activity has since slowed.

Still, crypto’s tied to broader tech weakness, and volatility in U.S. tech stocks hasn’t helped sentiment.

Ethereum is down 4.5% to $1,935, while Solana slid 5.1% to $80. XRP lost 3.9%, Dogecoin dropped 3.5%, and BNB fell 3.7%. On the memecoin side, HYPE slid 2.8% to $29.13.

Volume’s still heavy. Bitcoin’s 24h volume is at $44.8B, up 0.71%, and market cap stands at $1.34 trillion. Ethereum’s volume is at $23.08B, with a market cap of $235B. The only green standout is XAUT, the gold-backed token, which is up 0.88% to $5,036.50.

The BLS revised down job gains from April 2024 to March 2025 by 898,000, slightly less than the 911,000 figure floated last September, but still in line with Wall Street’s expectations.

The revised data confirms how soft last year’s labor market really was, despite headline stability.

Most of the December job gains came from health care (+82,000) and social assistance (+42,000). Construction added 33,000, a rare bright spot after a mostly flat 2025. But other sectors dragged.

Federal jobs dropped 34,000, mostly tied to deferred resignations following the Department of Government Efficiency layoffs. Financial activities shrank by 22,000.

Despite the weak trend, the January household survey came in hot, showing a gain of 528,000 workers and pushing labor force participation up to 62.5%. That’s the metric used to calculate the unemployment rate, which edged down to 4.3%.

Kevin Hassett, the White House’s top economic adviser, had prepped reporters to expect a soft number. But with both establishment and household surveys coming in stronger than forecast, the Fed is still expected to hold rates steady, even with Trump pushing for cuts.

January payrolls rose by 130,000, beating the 55,000 estimate and marking the strongest monthly gain since December 2024, according to Wednesday’s delayed BLS report.

December’s figure was revised down slightly to 48,000, but the overall trend points to a slow but steady job market.

The unemployment rate dipped to 4.3%, just below expectations. The broader underemployment rate fell to 8%, down 0.4 points from December, as fewer workers reported being stuck in part-time roles or leaving the labor force.

This update comes after a partial government shutdown ended on Feb. 3, which delayed the release. Even with stronger-than-expected hiring, there are still only scattered signs of layoffs, keeping the Fed in a tough spot.

President Trump quickly reacted online, saying the numbers prove the U.S. economy is strong and urging the Fed to cut rates aggressively. On Truth Social, he wrote:

“GREAT JOBS NUMBERS, FAR GREATER THAN EXPECTED! The United States of America should be paying MUCH LESS on its Borrowings (BONDS!). We are again the strongest Country in the World, and should therefore be paying the LOWEST INTEREST RATE, by far.”

China’s inflation came in weak again. January CPI rose just 0.2% year-on-year, missing the 0.4% forecast from economists in a Reuters poll. The soft number points to lingering deflation, with no strong stimulus from Beijing in sight.

Markets across Asia mostly shook it off. Japan’s Nikkei was closed, but futures rallied overnight, and the Nikkei 225 last traded at 57,650.54, up 2.28%.

Australia’s ASX 200 jumped 1.66% to 9,014.80, while South Korea’s Kospi gained 1.00% to 5,354.49. The Kosdaq also added 0.55%, marking a third straight green session.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.31% to 27,266.38, and the Shanghai Composite added 0.09%, though the CSI 300 dipped 0.26% as weak CPI kept mainland traders cautious.

In the U.S., tech stocks dropped again. The Nasdaq slid 0.59%, and the S&P 500 dipped 0.33%, with renewed anxiety over AI-linked valuations. But the Dow managed to close at a new all-time high of 50,188.14, up 0.1%.