Live markets: Bitcoin under pressure as Saylor comments on STRC sell-off

After falling below $83 on Thursday, Strategy’s (MSTR) STRC rebounded to around $88 by the end of the session. The sharp decline had sparked concern among investors, and on Friday morning Strategy (MSTR) Executive Chairman Michael Saylor appeared to address the volatility with a post on X:

“Markets are closed today. Volatility is never easy. Bitcoin keeps working. So do we. Thank you for your support.”

The post marked the company’s only public comment following the sell-off.

Bitcoin continues to sell off alongside precious metals, while Fed funds futures continue to price in 50 basis points of rate hikes over the next six months. By January 2027, markets are expecting the federal funds rate to reach 4.00% to 4.25%.

Bitcoin has fallen below $63,000, down 1% over the past 24 hours. Gold has slipped to around $4,100 per ounce, declining 1.3% over the same period, while silver is holding above $65 per ounce, down 1% on the day.

Here’s a quick snapshot of major crypto market movements this morning in Europe. All the major CoinDesk indexes are lower, with the deepest declines in the DeFi Select Index (DFX), down 3.2% since midnight UTC, and the Computing Select Index (CPUS), which has dropped 2.2%. Bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) both fell less than 1%, slipping for a fourth straight day, the longest streak in two weeks.

ENA, the governance token of stablecoin issuer Ethena, led declines in the DeFi index, dropping 9.2% since midnight. Ethena is a DeFI protocol known for its $4.5 billion market capitalization, dollar-pegged USDe, which generates yield by holding spot BTC, ETH and SOL and shorting an equivalent amount of derivatives to harvest the funding rate.

The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) has slipped 1.2% since midnight, 3.2% over 24 hours, with all members in the red.

Bitcoin isn’t the only asset feeling the heat from Wednesday’s hawkish Federal Reserve meeting. The Japanese yen is also under heavy pressure, sliding toward four-decade lows.

The yen weakened to 161.80 per U.S. dollar in early trading, just below its 2024 low of 161.95 and dangerously close to its weakest level in nearly 40 years.

The move comes after Fed officials raised their interest-rate projections for 2026 and 2027, reinforcing expectations for a stronger U.S. dollar across global markets. Although the Bank of Japan raised its key rate to 1% earlier this week, that remains far below the U.S. federal funds rate of 3.5%. This large interest-rate differential continues to work against the yen.

Adding to the pressure, the BOJ also decided to pause the tapering of its bond purchases, a dovish signal that largely offset the impact of its rate hike.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin has fallen sharply from Monday’s high near $67,000 to around $62,700, with selling accelerating in the wake of the Fed’s more hawkish stance.

Bitcoin has spent five straight months trading below what it costs to produce, squeezing miners and forcing some to sell, JPMorgan said in a note. The bank pegs the cost to mine one bitcoin at about $78,000, well above the roughly $62,500 the asset fetches now.

The strain is showing and about 20% of miners are now unprofitable, the bank said citing CoinShares data, and publicly traded miners sold more than 32,000 bitcoin in the first quarter to cover operating costs, more than they offloaded in all of 2025.

The network is adjusting on its own. When the price drops below cost, higher-cost miners power down, the hashrate, or total computing power securing the network, falls, and mining difficulty, the automatic setting for how hard it is to mine, resets lower.

That played out in early June, when difficulty dropped 10%, the second decline of that size this year.

Miners are also reacting faster than before. JPMorgan says the sensitivity of difficulty to price has climbed, with more operators sitting near breakeven and flipping machines on or off as prices move. The bank expects larger and more frequent adjustments for as long as bitcoin stays below its production cost.

The outlook is cautious, but JPMorgan flags one upside. The weak sentiment around the sector could itself prove a bullish contrarian signal, echoing the run of accumulation readings, from whale buying to falling exchange reserves, pointing the same way this month.