Bitcoin (BTC) faced a precipitous decline on Friday, with its attempts at a modest rally during U.S. trading hours swiftly quashed. The cryptocurrency saw a 4% drop in approximately ninety minutes, mirroring a significant downturn in equity markets.

A tepid U.S. jobs report for July, released earlier in the day, triggered a plunge in bond yields and the dollar—a scenario typically favorable for risk assets like stocks and Bitcoin. However, this was not the case. By midday in the U.S., the Nasdaq had fallen by 3.1%, and the S&P 500 by 2.7%, driven by an 11% post-earnings decline in Amazon (AMZN) and a 5% drop in Nvidia (NVDA). The Volatility Index (VIX) surged by an astounding 54%.

Although Bitcoin briefly climbed above $65,000, it succumbed to the risk-off sentiment, tumbling back to $62,900, down nearly 2% over the past 24 hours. The broader CoinDesk 20 Index fared even worse, falling by almost 3%. Leading the decline were altcoins such as Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), Uniswap (UNI), and Chainlink (LINK), each experiencing drops of 4%-5%.

Global Market Impact and Bank of Japan’s Influence

The somber mood in the markets was further compounded by events in Japan, where the Nikkei index plummeted by 5.8% on Friday, following a decline of over 4% the previous day. This selloff was triggered by the Bank of Japan’s decision to marginally tighten its monetary policy, raising its benchmark lending rate to 0.25% from a previous range of 0%-0.1%.

Genesis Trading Bankruptcy Compounds Bearish Sentiment

Adding to the bearish market sentiment was the movement of 16,600 Bitcoin (approximately $1.1 billion) and 166,300 Ether (roughly $521 million) from wallets associated with the bankrupt Genesis Trading. According to Arkham Intelligence, these transactions likely represent in-kind repayments to creditors. At least one creditor confirmed on X that they had received a modest distribution from the Genesis estate.