United States shutdown deal nears, but markets remain on edge

Negotiations had stalled over funding for the Department of Homeland Security and immigration enforcement, with lawmakers racing to finalize legislative text and schedule votes ahead of the deadline. President Donald Trump wrote on Thursday evening that a prolonged shutdown would be damaging and that he was working with Congress to secure the necessary funding.

Markets tracked the shutdown talks alongside Federal Reserve and geopolitical headlines. Bitcoin fell to a nine-month low of $81,000 this week, and spot bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds recorded about $1 billion in outflows so far, according to the report. Reuters also reported sharp moves across risk assets and commodities as investors repositioned. Silver fell about 22% from its recent high, while gold briefly dropped below $5,000 an ounce before rebounding to around $5,100, according to figures cited from TradingView.

Nick Heather, head of trading at One.io, told Cointelegraph that bitcoin’s decline reflected tighter U.S. dollar liquidity rather than crypto-specific factors, and tied the move to an increase in the Treasury General Account, which can coincide with pressure on risk assets when the Treasury rebuilds cash balances. Heather also pointed to limited activity from large holders, saying whale wallets had remained largely inactive in internal onchain monitoring.

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes wrote on Friday that U.S. dollar liquidity had fallen by roughly $300 billion in recent weeks, attributing the change largely to the Treasury General Account and linking it to bitcoin’s move into the low $80,000s. Separately, investor risk appetite was also shaped by foreign policy developments after Trump declared a national emergency over Cuba and signaled earlier this week that he was weighing military options related to Iran’s nuclear and missile programs.