Crypto Weakens, Focus Shifts to the Fed
Bitcoin weakened again in Tuesday's trading session (February 17th), as the crypto market moved cautiously amid thin liquidity due to holidays in several major markets. At the time of writing, BTC was down sharply by around 2.9% to $66,833, indicating that risk appetite had not yet fully recovered.
The pressure came from a combination of a "wait-and-see" mode ahead of a series of US data releases and Fed policy signals, coupled with geopolitical uncertainty ahead of the continuation of US-Iran talks in Geneva. Meanwhile, market concerns that interest rates could remain higher for longer—including the narrative of a change in Fed leadership—remained factors preventing speculative assets like crypto from recovering.
On the corporate side, Strategy returned to the spotlight after adding 2,486 BTC, now reporting total holdings of 717,131 BTC at an average cost of around $76,027 per coin. With Bitcoin's current price hovering around $67,000, this position is below the average buy price—highlighting the volatility risk for companies with a "Bitcoin treasury" strategy.
Similar risk signals are also evident from other companies: Metaplanet reported a large loss impacted by valuation adjustments on its Bitcoin holdings, demonstrating how falling crypto prices can quickly weigh on the financial statements of issuers who use BTC as their primary asset.
Meanwhile, altcoin movements tended to be mixed: Ether fell around 1.5% to $1,968, XRP weakened around 1.3% to $1.47, while BNB edged up around 0.2% to $616. Among the memecoin group, Dogecoin edged up around 0.14% to $0.1009, while the TRUMP token fell around 0.25% to $0.0394.
Source: Newsmaker.id
