The cryptocurrency market is experiencing a pronounced bearish phase, with overall market capitalization dropping 3.26% to $2.34 trillion amid a sentiment reading of "Extreme Fear" on the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which stands at a low of 12 points. The 24-hour trading volume, however, increased by 3.47% to $101.22 billion.
Bitcoin (BTC) fell 2.66% to trade around $68,382.92, maintaining a market dominance of 58.5%. Ethereum (ETH) faced a steeper decline of 6.16%, trading near $1,959.22 with a 10.1% market share. The sell-off in Ether was exacerbated over the weekend by on-chain data revealing a wallet attributed to trader Garrett Jin depositing over $540 million worth of ETH to Binance, creating disproportionate sell pressure.
Despite the broader downturn, Ether showed signs of stabilization on Monday, rising 0.43% as it attempted to recover towards the $2,000 level following the weekend's sell wave. This pressure translated into oversold conditions that set the stage for a potential recovery.
The derivatives market reflects continued de-risking. The total notional open interest (OI) for crypto futures dropped to $98 billion. Bitcoin and Ether futures OI fell 1% and 2.7%, respectively, over 24 hours. Funding rates for several altcoins like XRP, DOGE, and SOL remain negative, indicating a prevailing bearish sentiment among traders. However, a massive flow was observed on Deribit, where someone paid a $3 million premium for a $75,000 strike Bitcoin call option, representing a significant bullish bet.
Altcoins broadly underperformed, with the altcoin-dominated CoinDesk 80 (CD80) Index losing 0.17%. Memecoin DOGE was down over 10% in 24 hours, while XRP saw a slight recovery of 1% by midnight UTC after an 8% drop since Sunday. LayerZero (ZRO) continued its decline, falling over 34% in five days.
In other sectors, the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi dropped 2.21% to $95.85 billion, led by a 2.41% slump in Aave. Conversely, the NFT sales volume saw a significant 73.76% growth, reaching $12.15 million.
Regulatory developments also made headlines, as a Russian deputy finance minister emphasized the need for cryptocurrency regulation, disclosing that citizens are spending nearly $648 million daily on crypto in an unregulated environment.
