Bitcoin pulled back during U.S. trading on Tuesday, giving up part of its rebound from the weekend selloff as investors rotated into precious metals and reduced exposure to risk assets.

After climbing about 7% from panic-driven lows near $74,000 to trade above $79,000, bitcoin reversed course and was last trading around $77,100, down roughly 2% over the past 24 hours. Ether saw steeper losses, sliding 4.7% to about $2,260.

The renewed pressure on crypto came as gold and silver staged a sharp recovery from last week’s turbulence. Silver surged nearly 15% on the day, while gold extended gains toward the $5,000-per-ounce level after rising 6.5%.

U.S. equities also moved lower, led by declines in large-cap technology and artificial intelligence-linked stocks. Nvidia, Oracle, Broadcom, Micron and Microsoft were each down between 3% and 5%, pulling the Nasdaq down about 1%.

Crypto-related equities broadly tracked the risk-off tone. Strategy, the largest publicly traded holder of bitcoin, fell more than 2% to fresh lows, while Coinbase and Bullish declined by similar amounts. Galaxy Digital tumbled over 12% after reporting weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter results, and stablecoin issuer Circle dropped another 3.5%.

A small pocket of strength emerged among bitcoin miners pivoting toward AI infrastructure. TeraWulf jumped 12% after announcing the acquisition of two U.S. industrial sites that could more than double its power capacity to 2.8 gigawatts. Cipher Mining rose 4% after unveiling plans to raise $2 billion in high-yield debt to fund its Black Pearl data center in Texas, expected to deliver 300 megawatts under a long-term lease with Amazon Web Services.

Dead-cat bounce

Derivatives markets suggest traders are bracing for a short-lived recovery rather than a sustained rally, according to Jake Ostrovskis, head of OTC at crypto trading firm Wintermute.

Ostrovskis said the lack of demand for upside exposure mirrors conditions seen in April 2025. At the same time, heavy buying of near-term downside protection has pushed short-dated implied volatility above longer-dated contracts, creating a backwardated options curve.

He added that a normalization of volatility and a return to a contango structure would be early signals that the market may be forming a more durable bottom.