The cryptocurrency market is experiencing a significant downturn, with major digital assets extending losses despite a strong risk-on rally in U.S. equities. The total crypto market capitalization has fallen by 2.86% to $2.31 trillion, while the 24-hour trading volume decreased by 11.78% to $99.11 billion. Market sentiment has plunged into "Extreme Fear," with the Crypto Fear & Greed Index registering a mere 9 points.
Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) led the decline. BTC dropped 3.48% to trade around $67,351.93, briefly slipping below the $70,000 handle to lows near $67,900. Its market dominance stands at approximately 58.5%. ETH saw a sharper decline of 5.05%, trading near $1,964.16 with a market dominance of 10.3%. Solana (SOL) also fell, trading near $80.80, down roughly 4.3% over 24 hours.
This crypto sell-off occurred in stark contrast to the performance of U.S. stock indices. The S&P 500 opened up 0.72% at 6,991.54, the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.89% to 23,307.86, and the Dow Jones added 0.5% to 50,440.28. Market desks noted that this divergence underscores crypto's role as "the purest expression of macro risk appetite" and a high-beta satellite to equity portfolios, often being the first asset class investors de-risk during volatility.
Amid the broad market decline, a few tokens posted extraordinary gains. PEPE ($TRUMP) surged 1011.23% to $0.0001177, IRISnet ($IRIS) jumped 838.37% to $0.005003, and Book of Meme 3.0 ($BOME) rose 644.42% to $0.000000006933.
Other sector metrics showed mixed results. The total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi) dropped 1.57% to $96.931 billion, with leading protocol Aave seeing a 2.51% decline. However, Prism DEX recorded an astonishing 3,034,385% increase in its 24-hour TVL. Conversely, the NFT sales volume increased by 11.32% to $9,168,908, led by the Flying Tulip PUT collection, which saw a 21.30% rise.
In related news, South Korean policymakers questioned Bithumb CEO Lee Jae-won after the exchange was found to have unintentionally transacted $40 billion in BTC, a figure over twelve times its actual holdings. Furthermore, shares of Bitcoin miners CleanSpark and IREN continued to fall following revenue misses. Separately, wallet provider SafePal announced a $3 million Solana Builder's Grant to support network growth in 2026.
