Crypto market drops as Nasdaq tech selloff spills into digital assets
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- Bitcoin lost 2.5% to $62,300 and ether fell more than 4%, with $717 million in liquidations amplifying losses across altcoins; tokens like ENA and HYPE dropped 5%-6%.
- Nasdaq 100 futures cratered 2.5% since midnight, extending Monday's tech downturn on profit-taking and bond yield concerns, per Patrick Munnelly of TickMill.
- Privacy coins DASH and XMR bucked the broader selloff, losing 0.2% and 0.7% respectively, while rival ZEC fell 4.2% after an AI-inspired exploit earlier this month.
- SpaceX perpetuals saw open interest surge 10% while prices dropped 15% — the highest OI increase among major tokens — making SpaceX futures the sixth-largest in the world, ahead of ZEC.
- XRP futures open interest climbed to 2.38 billion tokens, an eight-month high, even as XRP dropped 2% on the week with negative CVD signaling short-led selling.
- The options market is structurally long calls heading into Friday's quarterly expiry, but those bullish bets are underwater while puts sit in the money; put-call skews show persistent demand for downside protection.
- The Dollar Index rose to 101.15, its highest level in more than a year, and BTC futures OI slipped to 720K from 742K last week and a May peak of 800K.
Why it matters: With the Dollar Index hitting 101.15 (highest in over a year) and BTC futures open interest falling from 800K to 720K, leveraged longs are unwinding alongside the tech-led equity rout. The $717M in liquidations and oversold RSI at 39.05 point to forced selling rather than fundamental repricing, leaving privacy coins as the lone pocket of relative strength.
