Bitcoin Falls Below $74,000 as Price Struggles to Break Higher

Bitcoin experienced a rapid decline in US morning trade on Thursday, dropping 2% in minutes after failing to breach the increasingly resistant $75,000 to $76,000 range. The cryptocurrency fell to approximately $73,500, now over 1% lower than its value 24 hours prior. This downturn occurred after bitcoin once again rose past $75,000, only to be turned back. The stock market, which had reached record highs with the Nasdaq and S&P 500, also paused, with both indices down about 0.1% early in the session. Stocks linked to crypto, including Coinbase, Strategy, Robinhood, and Circle, saw declines of roughly 2% to 3% in morning trading. Meanwhile, crude oil prices rose about 2%, exceeding $90, due to ongoing geopolitical tensions affecting supply. The $75,000 to $76,000 range is crucial for bitcoin, as it represents the pre-crash level from February 5 that sent BTC down to $60,000. Surpassing this range might indicate a larger movement that could push prices back towards the $90,000 mark at which bitcoin started the year. Notably, the correlation between bitcoin and software stocks, which had been nearly 1:1 before the conflict in the Middle East at the end of February, has seen bitcoin outperform the software ETF, IGV. However, over the past five days, IGV has caught up, rising by as much as 11%, while bitcoin has remained flat. This suggests that rather than decoupling, software stocks may have been lagging behind bitcoin and are now catching up, with IGV up 1% on Thursday and bitcoin down 1.5%.