Crypto prices remained under pressure on Friday as the US government entered a partial shutdown after lawmakers failed to meet a midnight funding deadline, adding another layer of uncertainty to a market already struggling to find deals.
Bitcoin traded around $83,559, up about 1% on the day but down about 6.8% over the past week, according to the price screen.
Ether was near $2,686, down about 1.9% over the past 24 hours and down 9% for the week. XRP changed hands near $1.72, down about 1.6% on the day and almost 10% in seven days.
The closure itself seems short. The Senate has passed a funding plan, but the House is out until Monday, so the government still faces a technical problem this weekend.
This timing is important for risk assets because it results in low weekend liquidity and a headline cycle, which could put pressure on Bitcoin and the broader crypto market over the weekend.
There is also a clear crypto angle here that is not just “risk-free”. Prediction markets have spent the last 24 hours showing just how complicated defining the term “stop” can be.
The traders of Polymarket and Kalshi were forced to think like lawyers. The government can be “shut down” on paper at 12:01 a.m. and still appear normal to most people for two days. It is precisely in this gap between legal status and real-world impact that contract language and settlement rules begin to take hold.
For crypto, the shutdown headline feels more like a sentiment stress test than a direct economic shock. This keeps traders cautious, pushes people into smaller position sizes, and makes drawdowns heavier because buyers don’t want to show up in front of a weekend news gang.
