Bitcoin price coils under $65K as US PMI data raises stagflation fears

Bitcoin is stuck in a holding pattern below $65K, and the culprit isn’t some crypto-native drama. It’s the oldest macro villain in the book: stagflation. The S&P Global US Manufacturing PMI for July 2026 came in at 53.9, marking 12 consecutive months of expansion in factory activity. That sounds like good news until you dig into the details. New orders and output growth both hit four-month lows, while input costs remained stubbornly elevated thanks to tariffs and energy prices. Growth slowing down while inflation refuses to budge. That’s the stagflation playbook. A tale of three assets diverging Throughout 2026, BTC’s correlation with the S&P 500 has been steadily declining. Its relationship with gold, the traditional stagflation hedge, has similarly weakened. That range has held firm since the PMI data dropped on August 3, with price action as of August 5-6 showing little appetite for a breakout in either direction. ETF outflows tell the real story Bitcoin ETFs experienced hundreds of millions in outflows during early August 2026, reinforcing a pattern of short-term selling pressure that has coincided with stagflation-adjacent data releases throughout the year. This isn’t ...