NEW YORK, Feb 2, 2026, 13:32 (EST) — Regular session
- Bitcoin rose 0.4% to around $78,400 after dipping below $75,000 earlier.
- A broader “risk-off” unwind and fresh focus on Fed liquidity kept crypto volatile.
- Traders are watching Tuesday’s U.S. House vote on reopening the government and knock-on effects for key data releases.
Bitcoin rose 0.4% to $78,387 on Monday afternoon, paring earlier losses after it slid to as low as $74,609. Ether fell about 0.8% to $2,336.96.
The bounce came as investors nursed a bruising cross-asset selloff that started with a sharp tumble in precious metals and rippled into crypto. “It’s risk off and de-leveraging,” said Christopher Forbes, head of Asia and Middle East at CMC Markets. (Reuters)
Traders have also been repricing the outlook for U.S. liquidity since President Donald Trump tapped former Fed governor Kevin Warsh to succeed Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chair in May. Warsh may want to shrink the Fed’s balance sheet, but “actually reducing the size of the balance sheet is a nonstarter,” said Joe Abate, a U.S. rates strategist at SMBC Capital Markets. (Reuters)
Bitcoin’s slump has been tied to those liquidity worries. It fell 6.53% to $78,719 on Saturday, after it hit $81,104 on Friday, the lowest since Nov. 21, as investors weighed whether a Warsh-led Fed would pull cash out of the financial system. (Reuters)
Flows into U.S.-listed spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have also been choppy. In the latest reported session, they posted a net outflow of $509.7 million on Jan. 30 after $817.8 million left the day before, Farside Investors data showed; spot ETFs are stock-market funds that hold bitcoin. (Farside)
The U.S. macro calendar got messier as a partial government shutdown prompted the Bureau of Labor Statistics to delay Friday’s January employment report. “The release will be rescheduled upon the resumption of government funding,” said Emily Liddel, an associate commissioner at the BLS. (Reuters)
Crypto-linked U.S. stocks tracked the mood. Coinbase fell about 3%, Strategy dropped 4.4% and Robinhood slid 10%, while bitcoin miners Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms were down 2.2% and 0.6%, respectively.
But the market still looks fragile if margin calls keep spreading and the dollar stays firm. After Friday’s plunge, CME Group raised margins on its metal futures — margin is cash traders must post to back positions — and IG analyst Tony Sycamore said the scale of the unwind was something he hadn’t seen since 2008. (Reuters)
Warsh’s nomination now moves into a confirmation process that could shape expectations for how quickly policy changes, or doesn’t. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic called the job a “tall task” and said the nominee would need to build trust inside the Fed’s rate-setting committee. (Reuters)
For now, traders are watching Washington as much as charts. The House is expected to vote on Tuesday, Feb. 3, on legislation to restore government funding, a step that could determine when the delayed jobs report and other key releases return to the calendar. (Reuters)
