Investing.com-- Bitcoin fell slightly on Wednesday, extending its rangebound performance as persistent uncertainty over U.S. trade deals and the impact of a sweeping tax bill continued to weigh on risk appetite.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency remained squarely within a $103,000 to $108,000 trading range seen through most of June, with recent buying by major corporate holder Strategy, formerly Microstrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR ), doing little to stimulate prices.
Bitcoin fell 0.6% to $106,321.4 by 01:14 ET (05:14 GMT). While the coin was still sitting on a 3.5% gain from June, it struggled to break out of a recent trading range.
Trade deals, tax bill uncertainty weighs
Crypto markets tracked rangebound performances in broader risk-driven assets, as uncertainty over U.S. trade tariffs grew before President Donald Tump’s July 9 deadline for trade deals.
Washington has signed a limited number of trade deals with major economies so far, sparking concerns that Trump will impose the full brunt of his “liberation day” tariffs against U.S. trading partners.
Trump on Tuesday flagged a potential deal with India, but also threatened higher tariffs against Japan.
On the fiscal front, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday narrowly voted in favor of a controversial tax and spending cut bill, sending it to the House of Representatives for a final vote.
Critics of the bill have argued that it will further dent U.S. fiscal health and increase the risk of a debt default in the coming years. Fears of such a scenario had crept into risk-driven markets in recent sessions.
While trade and fiscal headwinds do not directly affect crypto, the sector is vulnerable to the resulting shifts in sentiment, given its speculative nature.
Bitcoin miner MARA’s June output slides
U.S.-listed Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA ), formerly Marathon Digital, said on Tuesday that its mining rate of the crypto fell sharply in June from the prior month, due to disruptions from unfavorable weather and natural variability in block luck.
MARA mined 211 Bitcoin in June, down 25% from 282 Bitcoin mined in May. The miner’s hash rate also fell to 57.4 from 58.3.
Still, the company’s stockpile of Bitcoin rose to 49,940 coins in June, making it the second-largest corporate Bitcoin holder, behind Strategy.
Crypto price today: altcoins drift lower
Broader crypto prices continued to drift lower after logging steep losses in June, as a bulk of market flows remained dedicated to Bitcoin.
World no.2 crypto Ether fell 0.8% to $2,441.80, while XRP fell 1.2% to $2.1895.
Solana fell 1.6%, while Cardano lost 1.5%.
Among meme coins, Dogecoin and $TRUMP shed 1.3% apiece.