Bitcoin’s Dramatic Descent: Altcoins Suffer a Most Unseemly Fall 🚀💸

by

Markets

What to know:

  • Bitcoin, that paragon of digital virtue, has plummeted to a mere $91,530, a fall from grace that would make even the most stoic investor weep. 🧠📉
  • The decline has dragged it back into a trading range that would make a Victorian drawing room blush with its predictability. 🏛️
  • The broader altcoin market, that boisterous crowd of misfits, saw steeper losses, with PENGU and XRP playing the role of tragic heroes. 🐍💸

Bitcoin and the wider crypto market succumbed to a wave of selling pressure during the Asia session, prompting a drop to about $91,530 at 10:00 a.m. UTC from around a local high of $93,750 at midnight. A performance so lackluster, it would make a drowsy sloth blush. 🐢

The sell-off follows a failed attempt at breaking above $94,500 on Tuesday, the third in the past five weeks. One might say the market is as persistent as a broken record. 🎶

The altcoin market fared worse than bitcoin, with PENGU and XRP taking the brunt of the hit with declines of 6.5% and 3.5% since midnight. A spectacle of despair, if ever there was one. 🎭

Bitcoin is now trading firmly back in December’s range, which saw various spikes between $85,000 and $94,500, even as it extended the decline that started in October. A rollercoaster ride with no safety harness. 🎢

Wednesday’s drop reflects a rise in risk-off sentiment from traders. U.S. equities also fell in pre-market trading, with the Nadsaq 100 futures trading 0.32% lower since midnight. A financial tango of gloom and doom. 💃🕺

Derivatives positioning

  • Exchanges have liquidated crypto futures bets worth $465 million over the past 24 hours, with longs accounting for over 50% of the tally. A game of chance where the house always wins. 🤡
  • Still, cumulative open interest (OI) in crypto futures listed worldwide remains steady above $143 billion, the highest in nearly two months, with moderately positive funding rates indicating a bullish positioning. A paradox as perplexing as a well-dressed paradox. 🧩
  • OI in XRP, DOGE, SUI and ZEC fell 5%-6%. This is likely linked to profit-taking following recent price surges in these tokens. A classic case of “I’ll take my gains and leave now.” 🏁
  • CME’s BTC futures show signs of green shoots, with OI rising from 100K BTC to 111K BTC since Dec. 30. Still, overall positioning remains light compared with a year ago, when OI stood at above 191K BTC. A seedling in a world of oaks. 🌱
  • On Deribit, put skews for BTC and ETH continue to weaken, although bullishness is yet to emerge. A slow dance with uncertainty. 🕺
  • BTC block flows show a mixed profile, with strangles suggesting a bullish volatility bias and call spreads indicating upside price expectations. In ETH’s case, straddle, also a volatility strategy, was the most preferred play. A financial ballet of chaos and control. 🎭

Token talk

  • Memecoins and privacy coins were Wednesday’s two worst performing sectors, with zcash leading the privacy plight, dropping by 4.5% since midnight UTC. A tragedy in three acts. 🐕💸
  • CoinDesk’s Memecoin Index (CDMEME) fell 1.5%, about twice as much as the CoinDesk 5 index, which measures the price of BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL and ADA. A case of “the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.” 📈📉
  • One glimmer of hope for the altcoin market is the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, with total value locked (TVL) across the entire ecosystem rising by 0.17% over the past 24 hours despite assets moving to the downside, suggesting positive inflows, according to DefiLlama. A flicker of light in a darkened room. 🌟
  • CoinMarketCap’s “altcoin season” indicator is at 25/100, down slightly from last week’s high of 27 but considerably above December’s low of 14, suggesting signs of optimism in the altcoin market. A faint heartbeat in a dying patient. 🩺
  • One outlier from the move to the downside was , which remains in the black since midnight to add to a 1.2% gain over the past 24 hours. A lone wolf in a pack of wolves. 🐺

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2026-01-07 14:42