BTC sinks below $70K, XRP plunges 14%: why the crypto market is crashing

Bitcoin fell below the $70,000 mark on Thursday, reaching its lowest level in about 15 months, as a broad risk-off sentiment swept across global financial markets and intensified pressure on digital assets.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency slid as low as $69,821 in early New York trading before stabilising slightly, hovering near levels last seen around the time of Donald Trump’s election victory in early November 2024.

The move extended a prolonged downturn that has seen Bitcoin shed more than 44% from its peak in October last year.

The latest decline reflects a combination of crypto-specific stress and wider cross-asset weakness, as investors reduce exposure to higher-risk assets.

Ethereum and altcoins deepen losses

The sell-off has hit other major cryptocurrencies even harder.

Ethereum dropped 7.71% to around $2,083, weighed down by underwhelming exchange-traded fund inflows and a surge in forced liquidations across decentralized finance platforms.

Losses spread aggressively across the broader altcoin market. XRP fell 14% to $1.36, making it one of the worst performers among the top ten digital assets.

Cardano and Dogecoin also erased significant gains, declining 8.16% and 7.72% respectively, with Dogecoin slipping below the psychologically important $0.10 level.

Market participants said the scale of the declines highlights how difficult it has been for alternative tokens to decouple from Bitcoin’s downward trajectory during periods of heightened volatility.

Earlier phases of the downturn were driven largely by crypto-specific liquidations, but the latest pressure has been closely linked to broader market stress.

Data from CoinGlass showed that roughly $722 million worth of bullish positions across digital assets were liquidated over the past 24 hours.

The forced unwinding of leveraged trades has added to selling momentum, exacerbating price swings and reinforcing negative sentiment.

Analysts said such liquidation cascades often deepen short-term losses during periods of market stress.

Bitcoin has now fallen more than 20% so far this week, following a 7.48% correction in the previous one, underlining the speed of the recent decline.

Global markets reinforce risk-off mood

The weakness in cryptocurrencies has coincided with a synchronised sell-off in global equities.

On Wednesday, the Nasdaq 100 fell more than 2%, with losses spreading across software, semiconductor and other sectors.

Stock declines extended into Thursday, with most major benchmarks in Asia and Europe trading lower.

Investors have been grappling with concerns over economic momentum, monetary policy uncertainty and geopolitical risks, prompting a shift away from speculative assets.

Cryptocurrencies, which often trade in line with broader risk sentiment, have been among the hardest hit.

Technical indicators signal oversold conditions

From a technical perspective, the current market environment has been described by traders as resembling a “falling knife” scenario.

The Relative Strength Index on the daily chart stands near 20, signalling deeply oversold conditions and strong bearish momentum.

The Moving Average Convergence Divergence indicator also continues to reflect a negative trend.

A bearish crossover that occurred on January 20 remains intact, with expanding red histogram bars below the neutral line.

While oversold readings can sometimes precede short-term rebounds, analysts cautioned that attempting to buy the dip remains risky, given the absence of clear stabilisation signals.

ETF outflows add to pressure

Institutional flows have also remained a headwind. US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded another day of heavy withdrawals on Wednesday, reflecting weakening investor confidence.

According to data from SoSoValue, investors pulled $544.94 million from spot Bitcoin ETFs during the session.

The outflows followed $272 million in redemptions on Tuesday, bringing the two-day total to $816.96 million.

The renewed withdrawals came as Bitcoin extended its decline, reinforcing the fragile mood across digital asset markets.

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