Bitcoin Slips Below $78,000 on Fed Fears; LatAm Stablecoins
Key Facts
- Bitcoin settled at US$77,404 down 1.46 percent on Tuesday as firmer Treasury yields and Fed hike odds near 70 percent capped the coin below the US$80,000 resistance band.
- Ethereum closed at US$2,418 a drop of 1.99 percent, while Solana underperformed the majors with a 2.92 percent slide to US$99.99.
- XRP ended at US$1.3516 also down 1.99 percent, tracking Ethereum’s move as altcoins bore the brunt of cooling risk appetite.
- The macro anchor is dollar cash with 10-year Treasury yields near 4.79 percent making US-dollar instruments more attractive than long-duration crypto risk.
- LatAm volume is a stablecoin story with over 90 percent of regional digital-asset throughput in dollar-linked tokens and Brazil alone logging about US$89 billion in 2025 stablecoin transactions.
- Remittance economics are shifting as traditional operators charge 5 to 8 percent fees while crypto rails can settle for under 1 percent, reinforced by a new 1 percent US remittance tax.
Today’s Focus
Bitcoin settled at US$77,404 on Tuesday, September 1, a 1.46 percent decline, as firm US Treasury yields and a roughly 70 percent market-implied probability of another quarter-point Federal Reserve rate hike pressured crypto broadly.
Ethereum fell 1.99 percent to US$2,418, Solana dropped 2.92 percent to US$99.99, and XRP lost 1.99 percent to US$1.3516, confirming that altcoins underperformed Bitcoin as risk appetite cooled.
For Latin America, the day’s volatility barely touched the real economy: dollar-denominated stablecoins remain more than 90 percent of regional transaction volume, with Argentina’s crypto purchases over 70 percent in USDT and USDC.
The opportunity sits in remittances, where crypto rails undercut the 5 to 8 percent fees of Western Union and MoneyGram, a gap made wider by a new 1 percent US tax on remittance outflows.
What matters today. Bitcoin’s US$80,000 ceiling matters less to Latin America than stablecoin rails that are quietly dollarising savings, wages, and remittances.
01 The session in one read
Bitcoin settled at US$77,404 on Tuesday, September 1, down 1.46 percent, as firmer US Treasury yields and a roughly 70 percent market-implied probability of another Federal Reserve rate hike pushed crypto lower. The coin hovered below the US$80,000 region all session, with early intraday prints near US$78,559 slipping through US$78,000 by mid-morning New York time.
The decline was broad: Ethereum closed at US$2,418, down 1.99 percent, Solana at US$99.99, down 2.92 percent, and XRP at US$1.3516, also down 1.99 percent. Altcoins bore the heavier selling, a pattern that typically signals cooling risk appetite rather than a Bitcoin-specific shock.
The Tuesday pullback is a macro story, not a crypto winter relapse: higher Treasury yields near 4.79 percent reward holding dollars while resistance between US$80,000 and US$83,000 caps fresh Bitcoin advances. For Latin American users, the interesting number is not Bitcoin’s daily move but the regional shift toward USDT and USDC, which now represent roughly 40 percent of all crypto purchases and dominate real-world throughput. The variable to watch is whether Bitcoin can reclaim the US$78,500 area on any decline in Fed hike expectations; if not, expect stablecoin demand across Brazil and Argentina to accelerate further.
02 The board
Bitcoin’s US$77,404 close leaves it below the US$80,000 to US$83,000 resistance band that analysts flagged as the area where ETF outflows and elevated derivatives open interest have been limiting fresh upside. Ethereum at US$2,418 remains the weakest of the large tokens on a long-term basis, while Solana’s 2.92 percent drop to US$99.99 pushed the altcoin back under the US$100 round number.
XRP at US$1.3516 moved in lockstep with Ethereum, a reminder that the session’s driver was macro and dollar-centric, not asset-specific news. No token escaped the pullback, and none broke its recent trading range.
| Asset | Level | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | US$77,404 | -1.46% |
| Ethereum | US$2,418 | -1.99% |
| Solana | US$99.99 | -2.92% |
| XRP | US$1.3516 | -1.99% |
Source: RT close, 2026-09-01. Where a commodity has no spot feed, an exchange-traded tracker or leading producer is shown as a labelled proxy.
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Latin America — Cross-Market Board
| Instrument | Last | Change | YoY | Prev. | High | Low | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IBOV | 179,722.48 | +1.30% | +21.85% | 177,418.78 | 168,310 | 167,142 | — |
| IPSA | 11,315.26 | -1.14% | — | 11,445.90 | 11,210 | 10,984 | 1,513,213,483 |
| IPC MEX | 65,314.78 | -0.18% | +12.17% | 65,430.32 | 66,121 | 65,405 | 108,886,187 |
| MERVAL | 3,049,455 | +0.51% | +30.51% | 3,022,485 | 3,042,365 | 2,991,150 | — |
| COLCAP | 2,470.26 | +1.86% | — | 9.04 | 9.05 | 9.02 | 4,133 |
| BVL PERÚ | 59,450.29 | +0.11% | — | — | — | — | — |
| USD/BRL | 5.16 | +0.01% | -5.13% | 5.16 | 5.18 | 5.14 | — |
| EUR/BRL | 5.95 | +1.01% | -5.83% | 5.89 | 5.98 | 5.94 | — |
| USD/MXN | 17.06 | -0.24% | -8.58% | 17.10 | 17.08 | 17.01 | — |
| USD/CLP | 913.98 | +0.04% | -5.67% | 913.65 | 915.11 | 906.68 | — |
| USD/COP | 3,140 | +0.03% | -22.04% | 3,139 | 3,141 | 3,105 | — |
| USD/PEN | 3.36 | -0.66% | -4.82% | 3.38 | 3.38 | 3.35 | — |
| USD/ARS | 1,493 | +0.10% | +12.96% | 1,491 | 1,494 | 1,480 | — |
| USD/UYU | 40.27 | +1.24% | +1.80% | 39.77 | 40.27 | 40.23 | — |
| USD/PYG | 5,939 | +1.68% | -19.54% | 5,841 | 5,939 | 5,925 | — |
| USD/BOB | 11.64 | -0.76% | +72.04% | 11.73 | 11.72 | 11.64 | — |
| USD/DOP | 58.34 | +1.25% | -3.44% | 57.62 | 58.34 | 58.04 | — |
| USD/CRC | 445.92 | +0.89% | -9.71% | 441.97 | 448.50 | 445.92 | — |
03 What moved it
The proximate trigger was the bond market: 10-year US Treasury yields near 4.79 percent gave investors a higher return for holding plain dollars, reducing the appeal of long-duration risk assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Futures markets assigned a roughly 70 percent probability to a quarter-point Fed rate hike later in September, reinforcing the case for cash over crypto.
Flows into US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have turned inconsistent, with prior inflows now matched by outflows that blunted the August rally. Binance’s expansion into physically settled options on more than 1,000 US stocks and ETFs and Ark Invest’s purchase of US$37 million in Block shares and Circle equity both signal institutional appetite, but neither shifted Bitcoin’s immediate price path.
A UK crime agency freeze of US$13.5 million tied to a Premier League crypto investigation and a Massachusetts crypto-backed PAC scaling back ad spending added little to the day’s price action but kept regulatory noise in the background.
04 The Latin American read
Latin America’s day-to-day crypto economy runs on stablecoins, not Bitcoin. Regional digital-asset volume exceeded US$27 billion in 2025, with dollar-linked tokens above 90 percent of throughput, and Brazil alone recorded roughly US$89 billion in stablecoin transactions last year.
Brazil’s Receita Federal reports that about 90 percent of declared crypto turnover is stablecoin-denominated, rising to 98 percent of a US$6.9 billion volume in the first quarter of 2026. In Argentina, USDT and USDC make up more than 70 percent of crypto purchases, and about three-quarters of crypto-paid workers choose stablecoin salaries, a pattern researchers call bottom-up dollarisation.
Remittances are the clearest utility case. With over US$150 billion in annual inflows to the region, legacy operators such as Western Union and MoneyGram charge 5 to 8 percent fees, while crypto-based transfers settle for under 1 percent. A new 1 percent US tax on remittance outflows is nudging migrants further toward stablecoin rails, particularly in the US-Mexico corridor and Argentina.
05 The names to watch
Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood bought US$37 million across 456,059 Block shares and Circle equity on Tuesday, a bet that payments infrastructure and stablecoin issuance will compound faster than spot Bitcoin itself. Solana Treasury DeFi Development Corporation is pursuing a US$20 million raise to buy more SOL, having recently added 19,000 tokens to a treasury exceeding 2.33 million SOL.
Bank of America, Citi, and Goldman Sachs are among 21 institutions planning a US dollar stablecoin venture, initially focused on the dollar before expanding to euro and other G7 currencies. For Latin America, that institutional entry matters more than any single Bitcoin daily move: deeper dollar-stablecoin liquidity lowers costs and counterparty risk for the region’s savings and remittance rails.
06 The outlook
Bitcoin enters September with a historical curse: it has fallen in eight of the past 13 Septembers, and Wall Street stocks have a similar seasonal weakness dating to 1928. With the Fed decision later this month carrying a roughly 70 percent probability of a hike, the path of least resistance for crypto is capped until that uncertainty clears.
For Latin America, the stronger signal is stablecoin adoption growing three times faster than in the United States and five times faster than in Western Europe, with roughly 62 million active wallets and US$12.7 billion in monthly stablecoin volume. The question is not whether Bitcoin will retake US$80,000 this week, but whether Brazil and Argentina formalise the dollar-stablecoin infrastructure that their citizens already use.
07 What to watch
- Fed hike odds: A mid-September Fed rate decision hovers over Bitcoin; any move above the roughly 70 percent implied probability could push the coin back toward the low US$70,000s.
- US Treasury yields: The 10-year yield near 4.79 percent is the magnet pulling capital into dollars; a decisive move higher would further pressure long-duration crypto.
- Brazilian stablecoin volume: Receita Federal’s 98 percent stablecoin share of Q1 volume shows the real economy has already chosen; watch for regulatory clarity that could accelerate institutional entry.
- Remittance corridors: The new 1 percent US remittance tax plus legacy operator fees of 5 to 8 percent create a widening cost gap that stablecoin rails are exploiting, especially in Mexico and Central America.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Bitcoin fall on Tuesday, September 1?
Firmer US Treasury yields near 4.79 percent and a roughly 70 percent market-implied probability of another Federal Reserve rate hike made dollar cash more attractive than Bitcoin, pushing it down 1.46 percent to US$77,404.
Are altcoins falling faster than Bitcoin?
Yes. Ethereum lost 1.99 percent to US$2,418, XRP fell 1.99 percent to US$1.3516, and Solana dropped 2.92 percent to US$99.99, showing altcoins underperformed Bitcoin as risk appetite cooled.
Do Latin Americans actually use Bitcoin for daily payments?
Mostly not. Stablecoins such as USDT and USDC are over 90 percent of regional transaction volume, and in Argentina more than 70 percent of crypto purchases are dollar-linked tokens rather than Bitcoin.
Can crypto beat Western Union on remittances?
Yes on cost and speed. Traditional operators charge 5 to 8 percent, while crypto-based transfers can settle for under 1 percent, a gap widened by a new 1 percent US tax on remittance outflows.
Market data: RT
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error
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