New York, Feb 27, 2026, 17:24 EST — After-hours
Bitcoin slipped roughly 2.8% to $65,479 late Friday in U.S. trading, pulling back from an earlier peak of $68,118. The largest cryptocurrency touched a session low of $65,202 before stabilizing.
The late-day drift is key here: bitcoin’s been behaving like a leveraged play on U.S. rates. As traders move back their bets on Fed cuts, the dollar firms up, risk appetite fades, and crypto finds itself with less room to run.
Month-end tends to make positioning choppy. Crypto never sleeps, trading nonstop, yet liquidity drops off—especially during U.S. cash hours and on weekends. Price moves sometimes seem outsized compared to the headlines.
U.S. producer prices climbed more than expected in January, with the PPI up 0.5% versus the 0.3% rise economists had penciled in. The higher wholesale inflation, driven partly by tariff-related costs according to a Reuters poll, added to concerns. “Given still-buoyant core inflation … we expect the Fed to remain on pause during its upcoming March meeting,” said Ben Ayers, senior economist at Nationwide. Reuters
Investors are grappling with whether this latest burst of inflation is genuine or just statistical noise. “There’s a real deep unease in markets about inflation and growth so far in 2026,” Adam Button, chief currency analyst at investingLive, said. Chris Low, FHN Financial’s chief economist, described the headline PPI surge as “alarmingly big,” though he pointed to some oddities in the trade-services data—possibly not a true reflection of current prices. Reuters
Some of that demand showed up in U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETFs—funds pegged to bitcoin’s spot price. Net inflows hit $506.6 million on Feb. 25, then added $254.4 million the following day, Farside Investors data showed. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust came out on top both times.
The surge in flows earlier this week sent Bitcoin briefly up to $69,520, before the momentum cooled. Nexo analyst Iliya Kalchev linked the spike to a “risk-on tone” following Nvidia’s results, telling Barron’s that “While further volatility cannot be ruled out, Bitcoin may have [already] carved out a local bottom.” Barron’s
Investors are rethinking their appetite for risk beyond crypto lately, especially as the AI-driven rally loses steam. According to Reuters, global equity funds saw their weakest inflows in five weeks during the period ending Feb. 25, following a 5.46% slide in Nvidia shares and a 1.2% dip for the Nasdaq. “We believe big market moves in recent months should be a trigger to review portfolios,” said Mark Haefele, CIO at UBS Global Wealth Management. Reuters
Regulation isn’t making any sudden moves, but it’s always there. Binance co-CEO Richard Teng pointed to Greece’s labor market and security setup as key reasons the country landed the exchange’s European regulatory hub. With the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) deadline set for July 2026, firms are jockeying for approval. “The smart money, the institutional money, the long-term money still continues to invest,” Teng said. Reuters
Still, the risks stand out. Should inflation remain stubborn and the dollar strengthen, bitcoin could drop fast—especially with light weekend volumes. Those ETF inflows? They can just as easily reverse.
All eyes shift to the U.S. jobs numbers coming March 6, with traders bracing for a 60,000 increase—a figure that could tip the Fed’s hand on possible rate cuts this year. That report now drives sentiment across risk assets, not just equities. Bitcoin’s in the mix too.
