Cryptocurrencies declined overnight in US markets after Standard Chartered PLC issued a warning about potential further weakness for Bitcoin, before stabilizing during Friday's Asian session. In midday trading, Bitcoin was up approximately 1% to $66,400; this followed a sharp drop of 4% in New York markets, where it touched $65,079, its lowest level this week. Ether traded around $1,950, above its low of $1,896 reached in the US.

Geoffrey Kendrick, Global Head of Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered, wrote in a report, "We anticipate prices will face further downward pressure in the coming months." He cited reasons including outflows from ETFs and a weaker macroeconomic environment.

Standard Chartered revised its year-end 2026 Bitcoin price target down to $100,000 from $150,000 (having predicted $300,000 just months ago) and warned that Bitcoin could potentially fall to $50,000 before stabilizing.

Last week, Bitcoin fell as low as $60,033, representing a decline of over 45% from its peak slightly above $126,000 in October. Repeated rallies have failed to sustain, indicating speculative demand is waning. During the same period, the entire cryptocurrency market lost nearly $2 trillion in value.

Tony Sycamore, Market Analyst at IG Australia, stated in a report, "From a technical perspective, as long as Bitcoin holds above the 200-week moving average near $58,000 (from which it successfully rebounded last Friday), a recovery towards the $73,000–$75,000 resistance zone remains possible." "However, a decisive break below the key $60,000/$58,000 area could trigger a deeper correction, testing the next support level around the $49,000 region."

Damien Loh, Chief Investment Officer at Ericsenz Capital, mentioned that market sentiment is being affected by concerns that sell-offs in other asset classes, such as tech stocks, "could bring further downward pressure to cryptocurrencies."