An attempted rally in crypto earlier on Thursday was met by steady selling throughout the U.S. afternoon hours. After rising above $113,000 level at one point, bitcoin (BTC) retreated to $111,800 late in the session, down about 0.7% over the past 24 hours. The selling in ether (ETH) and XRP (XRP) was a bit more sizable, with those tokens lower by 2.1% and 1.4%, respectively. Outperforming among the majors was Solana's SOL (SOL), which rose 3.1% over the past day. Quietly on the rise even as bitcoin struggled mightily over the past two weeks is gold. The yellow metal was higher by another 0.8% on Thursday to $3,477 per ounce. For the month of August, gold's outperformance is even more stark — a rise of nearly 4% as bitcoin slid 5.2%. At $3,477, gold now sits only a few dollars below its record high of $3,534 hit earlier this month on fears (now allayed) that Swiss gold bars would fall under punitive White House tariffs against Switzerland. For whatever reason, the macro developments — lower interest rates and weaker U.S. dollar — giving a boost to gold over the past weeks are failing to ignite a bid for digital gold, aka bitcoin. On tap for September appears to be the resumption of Federal Reserve rate cuts and one or possibly two new (likely dovish) Fed members appointed by President Trump. The year's final four months could get interesting.
