Traders are losing their appetite for riskier assets.

That’s pretty much the upshot from analysts after Bitcoin’s price slid to $93,000 on Sunday.

While the price has recovered slightly, a combination of macroeconomic factors is pushing investors to pull out of so-called risk-on assets like cryptocurrencies and tech stocks with both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq dropping over the past week.

“The latest drawdown reflects broader macro jitters rather than structural flaws,” Kraken’s global economist Thomas Perfumo told DL News. “That risk-off tone spills into crypto markets, where sentiment remains fragile.”

Analysts say lingering fallout from the record 43-day government shutdown and an increasingly hawkish Federal Reserve ahead of December’s Open Market Committee meeting, are weighing on investors’ risk appetite.

Investors are pulling risk exposure at the fastest pace since March. This comes as the White House is accusing policymakers of “flying blind” and federal data pipelines remain paralysed, which is causing rate-cut expectations to fall sharply.

The CME FedWatch tool now places the probability of a December rate cut at 44%, down 10% since last week. On Polymarket, bettors give a 46% chance of a rate cut.

“News that important economic statistics, including information on the unemployment rate, will remain unreleased negatively skew market signals,” Perfumo said.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters last Wednesday that October CPI and jobs reports will likely never be released.

“All of that economic data released will be permanently impaired, leaving our policymakers at the Fed, flying blind at a critical period,” Leavitt said.

Critical macro week ahead

The reopening of US government agencies means some delayed data will finally emerge, though analysts warn it may be incomplete or distorted by furlough effects.

Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, called this “a pivotal week” as investors seek clarity on US growth and the likelihood of another rate cut.

But even the long-delayed September jobs report is compromised, Yardeni warned, noting it will omit the unemployment rate entirely, since furloughed workers were unpaid during the reference week.

A barrage of Federal Reserve speakers throughout this week is expected to signal whether the central bank’s priority is now shifting toward recession risk or lingering inflation.

In the broader picture, corporate earnings data will also be scrutinised to fill macro gaps, Yardeni said, with Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and Nvidia acting as “microcosms” of the consumer and AI economy.

Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have seen over $3.1 billion in sales since the end of October, the most consecutive selling pressure since March, according to DefiLlama data.

Crypto market movers

• Bitcoin is down 0.7% over the past 24 hours, trading at $95,312.
• Ethereum is down 0.9% over the past 24 hours, trading at $3,180.

What we’re reading

• Harvard University boosts its BlackRock Bitcoin ETF investment to $442.8M — DL News
• Why is XRP ($2.27)’s price down despite the ETF debut? — DL News
• Bitcoin Drops Below $95,000. Is a Fall Past $80,000 Next? — Unchained
• Markets dumped. Here’s why — Milk Road
• XRP surges 11% on the back of ETF filings as new funds seen to trigger a $5bn bonanza — DL News

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email at lance@dlnews.com.