Bitcoin drops, extends recent losses

The world’s largest currency largely wiped out a mid-January recovery, moving back in sight of lows seen at the beginning of the year as traders favoured physical, safe-haven assets such as gold

Bitcoin dropped on Tuesday, extending recent losses as concerns over U.S. demands for Greenland saw traders steer clear of speculative assets.

The world’s largest currency largely wiped out a mid-January recovery, moving back in sight of lows seen at the beginning of the year as traders favoured physical, safe-haven assets such as gold.

Bitcoin declined 3% to $90,298.0 by 15:16 GMT.

A delay in a closely watched U.S. crypto regulatory bill also weighed on prices in recent sessions. Lawmakers delayed discussion of the bill — which aims to establish a U.S. regulatory framework — after Coinbase Global Inc objected to several proposals under the bill.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday evening he will discuss Greenland when attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week.

The U.S. president’s threats of tariffing eight European nations until they handed over Greenland battered global markets this week. Trump on Monday also did not clarify whether he will deploy the U.S. military to seize Greenland.

European leaders broadly rejected Trump’s demands, and were also seen preparing retaliatory measures if the U.S. president proceeded with his tariffs.

Heightened geopolitical tensions broadly sapped investor appetite for crypto, given that speculative assets tend to perform poorly in periods of high uncertainty.

Long positions on Bitcoin and other cryptos continued to be liquidated en masse this week, with data from Coinglass showing $260.32 million positions being liquidated in the last 24 hours.

This was after crypto markets experienced nearly $900 million in liquidations earlier in the week.

Retail sentiment towards Bitcoin remained weak, especially in the US. The Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index showed the world’s largest crypto continuing to trade at a discount in U.S. markets in comparison to the global average, Coinglass data showed.