Bitcoin (BTC-USD) and ethereum (ETH-USD) declined firmly alongside equities in late Thursday morning trading as investors weigh a slew of mixed economic data ranging from stronger-than-expected headline retail sales to a drop in the Philly Fed business outlook. As risk assets turn lower intraday amid rising Treasury yields across the curve, bitcoin (BTC-USD) gave up its $20K key level again, sliding 1.8% to $19.81K at 11:34 a.m. ET. And despite ether's (ETH-USD) successful migration to a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, the token fell 6.1% to $1.49K.Furthermore, the global crypto market cap of $959.7B slid 3.6% over the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The bearish price action comes as two of three major U.S. stock indices trade lower. The tech-heavy Nasdaq dipped the most, falling 1%, followed by the S&P 500, drifting down 0.6%, while the Dow Jones remained flat. Not surprisingly, crypto-related stocks also experienced selling pressure, with CleanSpark (CLSK) -4.2%, HIVE Blockchain (HIVE) -3.7%, BIT Mining (BTCM) -2.5%, Core Scientific (CORZ) -2.7%, Marathon Digital (MARA) -2.1% and MicroStrategy (MSTR) -2.4%. SA contributor Vincenzo Furcillo explained the economics of ether's post-Merge.
