Bitcoin Rally Stalls as New Macro Uncertainty Weighs on Risk Assets

The stall is less about bitcoin's own narrative than about the macro backdrop it has been trading against. A Fed hike, the prospect of another, and a geopolitical flashpoint in the Strait of Hormuz are exactly the kind of risk-off inputs that compress speculative positioning across asset classes, and crypto sits at the high-beta end of that trade. The quarter's gains were built during a different rate and geopolitical environment; whether they hold depends on whether the macro pressure proves transient or the start of a broader repricing.