NEW YORK, Jan 9, 2026, 10:12 (EST) — Regular session
- Bitcoin stuck near $90,000, with traders tracking U.S. jobs numbers and recalibrating Fed rate expectations.
- Shares of crypto-linked companies, including Strategy and Coinbase, saw steeper declines than bitcoin during the early New York session.
- U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs saw hefty net outflows for a second session in a row, piling on the pressure.
Bitcoin was down 0.3% at $90,016 early Friday in the U.S., trading as low as $89,641 and topping out at $91,384. Ether lost 0.4% to $3,076. Shares of Coinbase slipped 2.7%. Strategy, the bitcoin-treasury firm, tumbled 4.9%, a steeper drop than the cryptocurrency itself.
This pause is in focus as traders weigh the Fed’s next move following new U.S. numbers. Bitcoin’s fortunes often mirror shifts in risk appetite—and with no yield to offer, it tends to stall whenever rate expectations tilt toward higher-for-longer.
Flows aren’t helping either. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs—those holding the actual asset, not just futures contracts—posted net outflows of $486.1 million on Jan. 7 and $398.8 million on Jan. 8. BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC stood out as the heaviest weights, according to data from Farside Investors.
The Labor Department reported Friday that U.S. employers added 50,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate stayed at 4.4%. Average hourly earnings were up 0.3% for the month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Interest-rate bets moved fast following the report. Markets were pricing in a 95.4% probability that the Fed leaves rates steady at its Jan. 28 meeting—a jump from 86.2% the previous day, per Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor, which tracks fed funds futures using data from Investing.
There’s still a sense of caution among some investors, with inflation figures and the start of earnings season ahead. “All the inflation numbers are going to be critical to what Fed policy is going to look like,” Nanette Abuhoff Jacobson, global investment strategist at Hartford Funds, told Reuters.
Traders kept an eye on crypto-linked stocks, known for magnifying bitcoin’s swings. Strategy, holding a big bitcoin stake and acting as a stand-in for certain investors, showed even sharper price action than the coin itself. Marathon Digital dropped 2.6%, but over at Riot Platforms, shares gained 2.3%.
The flip side is pretty clear. Continued ETF outflows plus a hotter inflation number could push yields higher, strengthen the dollar, and send bitcoin sliding below $90,000—that big psychological level traders watch.
The next hurdle’s almost here: traders are bracing for the December U.S. consumer price index, dropping Tuesday, Jan. 13, and then the Fed’s Jan. 27-28 meeting. What they’re after is any hint on rates—will a cut happen soon, or is it just pushed off? See the Bureau of Labor Statistics for details.
