Market-wide selloff hits major cryptocurrencies
It’s been a rough start to the week for crypto traders. The market opened with significant selling pressure that affected nearly all major assets. Bitcoin fell below $84,000, dropping about 8% in a single day. Ethereum didn’t fare much better, slipping under $2,800 to around $2,743—that’s nearly a 10% decline.
Other altcoins followed the same pattern. XRP dropped to $2.01, Binance Coin fell to $813, and Solana lost ground to $125. Dogecoin and Cardano both saw double-digit percentage declines. Honestly, it felt like everything was moving in the same direction, which isn’t always the case in crypto markets.
Leverage gets squeezed hard
The real story here might be the liquidations. When prices move this quickly, leveraged positions get wiped out. Total liquidations reached nearly $935 million in 24 hours. That’s one of the highest figures we’ve seen recently.
Most of those liquidations—about $858 million—were long positions. People betting on prices going up got caught when the market turned south. Bitcoin led the liquidation totals with $375 million, followed by Ethereum at $223 million.
I think what’s interesting is how concentrated the pain was. In just the last hour before this writing, $145 million in positions got liquidated. The four-hour total was over $326 million. It shows how quickly things can unravel when sentiment shifts.
Seasonal patterns might not apply this year
Historically, December has been a good month for Bitcoin. The average gain is around 9.7%, making it the third-strongest month of the year. But experts are suggesting this year might be different.
Kathleen Brooks from XTB argues that Bitcoin is now acting more like a risk indicator. Its correlation with stocks has tightened, meaning shifts in overall risk appetite are driving price movements more than traditional crypto seasonality.
The data seems to support this view. The premium on three-month Bitcoin futures contracts has fallen to its lowest level in at least a year. That suggests investors are less enthusiastic about long-term price appreciation right now.
External pressures adding to the mix
There are some specific factors weighing on the market too. Last week, S&P Global downgraded Tether’s stock price, citing concerns about its reserves and transparency gaps. Tether pushed back strongly against the decision, but it still created uncertainty.
Meanwhile, MicroStrategy—the world’s largest institutional Bitcoin holder—has its own issues. CEO Phong Le mentioned the company might consider selling Bitcoin if its mNAV metric falls below 1. It’s currently at 1.19, but MicroStrategy shares have lost 60% of their value over the past year while Bitcoin itself is only down 13%.
There’s also the risk of index removal. MSCI is assessing whether to remove companies holding more than 50% of their assets in digital assets from benchmark indices. If MicroStrategy gets removed, that could create additional selling pressure.
What strikes me is how interconnected everything feels right now. It’s not just one thing causing the decline—it’s a combination of leverage unwinding, changing risk appetite, and specific company-level issues. The volatility index dropping below its 12-month average seems to be making investors nervous about year-end positioning.
I’m curious to see how this plays out over the coming weeks. December usually brings some holiday cheer to crypto markets, but this year feels different. The traditional patterns might not hold if risk-off sentiment continues to dominate.
