Bitcoin Slides Below $121K as Gold and Silver Rallies Take Breathers

Market Overview - Bitcoin attempted a rally towards a record high of nearly $124,000 but quickly fell back to below $121,000 within ninety minutes of the U.S. market opening, coinciding with declines in gold and silver markets [1] - Gold has been in the spotlight, but silver's performance was notable, reaching $50 per ounce for the first time, before experiencing a rapid profit-taking drop of about 4% to $48.55 [2] - Gold also saw a reversal of more than 1% from a challenge of the $4,100 per ounce level, currently trading at $4,035 [3] Investor Sentiment - The ongoing U.S. government shutdown is impacting investor sentiment, disrupting key economic data releases and slowing operations for businesses reliant on federal services, affecting both traditional and digital asset markets [4] Cryptocurrency Market Dynamics - Smaller cryptocurrencies, or altcoins, experienced significant declines, with ether dropping 3.5% to $4,300, while BNB and DOGE fell by 3%-4% [5] - Despite the pullback, Bitcoin's market dominance increased to 59.4%, the highest level in nearly eight weeks, indicating a rotation of capital back to Bitcoin [5] - The pullback in the crypto market led to over $600 million in leveraged trading positions being liquidated across all digital assets in the past 24 hours [6]