Bitcoin falls to one-week low as gold rallies to June peak

Bitcoin slipped below $64,000 around the Wall Street open on Tuesday, reaching a one-week low as investors moved into gold. The drop followed a 1.5% fall on Monday and came as gold climbed to $4,435 an ounce, its highest level since June 5.

Market participants pointed to rising geopolitical tensions involving the United States and Iran and a stalled reopening of the Strait of Hormuz as factors behind Monday’s decline. Oil prices rose about 5% and U.S. equities were largely flat over the same period.

Fund records showed substantial retail flows into the SPDR Gold Shares ETF, with $50 million in daily retail inflows recorded on Aug. 5 and a total inflow into the fund of $637 million that day. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a combined inflow of $244.4 million on the same date.

On-chain analytics data indicated that Bitcoin’s 90-day rolling correlation with gold remains positive. CryptoQuant’s CEO Ki Young Ju wrote that the Bitcoin–gold correlation has returned to levels seen during the period when Bitcoin was widely discussed as a store of value comparable to gold.

Technically, Bitcoin continued to encounter resistance near a long-term trend line and the 50-month exponential moving average, around $65,827. Since early June, the pair has posted only three daily closes above that moving average. Market participants noted a potential area for short liquidations and said leveraged positions have contributed to intraday volatility.

Trader and analyst Michaël van de Poppe wrote that the market looks rangebound and that recent weakness likely reflected a liquidity grab of leveraged long positions. He added that consolidation or a modest bounce toward $64,500 would reduce the risk of a continued cascade, while a sustained break above roughly $65,800 could open a path toward $73,000.

Traders are watching the U.S. Consumer Price Index for July, due Wednesday, as a near-term catalyst for volatility in risk assets including cryptocurrencies. Historical patterns show that major U.S. inflation prints have moved crypto markets; a softer July CPI reading previously coincided with daily gains for Bitcoin exceeding 4%.

On Tuesday, the combination of geopolitical risk, higher oil prices and renewed retail flows into gold ETFs coincided with Bitcoin surrendering recent intraday gains and testing the low $64,000 area.