The crypto markets started the week on a declining note, with the total market value of digital currencies slipping by 2%. Major tokens, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), traded lower after a brief rebound in the previous week. As of Monday, Bitcoin was priced around $67,500, marking a 2% decrease for that day and a 1.7% drop over the past week. Earlier, BTC had momentarily rallied to $70,000, but has since been fluctuating in a relatively narrow range between $68,000 and $70,000 after falling to around $60,000 in the first week of February.
Trading volumes hovered around $40 billion within the last 24 hours, reflecting a market characterized by active but uncertain trading behavior. Ethereum experienced slightly steeper losses of about 3% over the past day and 3.5% on a weekly basis. Overall, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization saw a decline to $2.39 trillion, with most of the top-ten digital assets also experiencing moderate losses, except for TRON (TRX), which posted minor gains. Dogecoin (DOGE) suffered the most significant setback, plunging 7.5% in a 24-hour period, though it remains nearly 7% higher over the week.
Analysts are increasingly expressing concerns regarding Bitcoin’s positioning within the broader market. Specifically, analysts at Keyrock highlighted Bitcoin’s correlation with risk assets, suggesting that it behaves like a high-beta extension of the tech sector and struggles to differentiate itself during growth-related downturns. They noted that Bitcoin’s rising correlation with tech stocks undermines its perceived role as a hedge against fiat risk. The report pointed out that until Bitcoin begins to move inversely to weakness in the U.S. dollar, its function as a macro hedge remains questionable.
In terms of investor sentiment, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index indicates that the market is still entrenched in “extreme fear,” a state it has maintained for much of the past month.
Turning to market movements, among the top-100 assets by capitalization, Cosmos (ATOM) led the day’s modest gains with a 2.4% increase, followed by Bittensor (TAO) with a 1% rise. On the contrary, Rain (RAIN) experienced a substantial drop of over 8%, while Dogecoin was the second-largest loser among major cryptocurrencies following its recent rally.
Liquidation figures revealed a total of $232 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, primarily in long positions, which accounted for roughly $159 million. Bitcoin contributed with liquidations close to $105 million, while Ethereum followed with about $90 million.
In the realm of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), negative trends persisted in U.S. spot crypto ETFs despite a slight rebound with net positive flows observed on Friday. Data from SoSoValue indicated that spot Bitcoin ETFs experienced net outflows of nearly $360 million over the past week, echoing trends from the prior week and resulting in total net assets of $87 billion by February 13. Meanwhile, spot Ethereum ETFs also reported outflows amounting to $161.2 million, leaving total net assets at $11.7 billion.
On the macroeconomic front, the latest labor data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that employers added just 181,000 jobs, falling short of the earlier estimate of 584,000 and significantly less than the 1.46 million jobs added in 2024. In an interview with CNBC, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent emphasized the importance of advancing the CLARITY Act to establish federal regulations for digital assets, noting it as a potential source of “great comfort” for market participants. However, he also warned that bipartisan support for such measures might diminish later in the year.
