Bitcoin opened weak on Wednesday, slipping $400 to $92,800, down 0.43%, with traders watching geopolitical headlines instead of jumping into risk. Futures volume over the past 24 hours hit $100.96 billion, but spot volume stayed sluggish at just $8.22 billion. Open interest across major venues hovered at $60.98 billion, holding flat as bulls failed to show up. The total market cap sat just under $1.85 trillion.
Meanwhile, gold pulled back after a strong three-day run. Bullion held near $4,470 an ounce, still up more than 4% over the past few sessions, but traders clearly started looking past global tensions and toward this week’s U.S. economic data.
The White House didn’t help ease any nerves. President Donald Trump said Venezuela will send between 30 and 50 million barrels of crude oil to the U.S., estimating the sale could fetch as much as $3 billion. The oil will be sold at market price, not discounted. Trump’s remarks came just days after the U.S. launched an attack on Venezuela.
Despite the backdrop, equity futures barely blinked. Dow futures added 28 points, or less than 0.1%, with S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures flat after both indexes closed at fresh highs on Tuesday.
Silver fell 2.2%, but it’s still up 12% on the year, mostly thanks to Chinese retail buying. Platinum dropped 4.2%, and palladium slid 2.9%. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index ticked up 0.1%.
Prediction markets got a jolt. Traders on Kalshi cranked up bets that Trump will “take back the Panama Canal” before 2029. Odds jumped to over 35%, up from below 30% just days ago. A separate bet on whether the U.S. would take control of any part of Greenland spiked to 38% midday Tuesday, up 8 points in a week.
Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/bitcoin-underperforms-gold-holds-ground/
