Investors reevaluate interest rate cut bets, Bitcoin falls to lowest level since November of last year

Due to last Fridays employment report being stronger than expected, further supporting the view of the Fed cutting interest rates, negative sentiment continues to persist in the market. Bitcoin fell to its lowest level since late November, dropping to $90,313.86. At the time of writing, Bitcoin had fallen 3.8% to $91,400. Other risk assets, including US stock futures, were also under pressure that day. Samer Hasn, senior market analyst at XS.com, said, "Bitcoin's continued decline is due to a lack of catalysts and a low-risk appetite atmosphere. The reduced attractiveness of risk assets has led to further declines in the stock market, which in turn has driven the overall trend in the cryptocurrency market." Last Friday's release of the latest US employment report was stronger than expected. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an increase of 256,000 non-farm jobs in December 2024, easily surpassing the widespread expectation of 157,000. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, lower than the expected 4.2%. This surge in the report also prompted Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. to predict only two more interest rate cuts this year. Bank of America Corp went even further, suggesting that there may be no further interest rate cuts this year, and stating that the risk of policy makers raising rates is actually greater. So far this year, Bitcoin seems to have taken a breather, only surpassing the $100,000 milestone twice. Cryptocurrency-related stocks were falling in pre-market trading, with MARA Holdings (MARA.US) falling 4.10%, Riot Platforms (RIOT.US) falling 4.33%, MicroStrategy (MSTR.US) falling 4.25%, HIVE Digital (HIVE.US) falling 3.0%, CleanSpark (CLSK.US) falling 4.6%, Bit Digital (BTBT.US) falling 5.1%, Bitfarms (BITF.US) falling 4.4%, and Coinbase Global (COIN.US) falling 4.1%.