Bitcoin traded near $77,373 on Wednesday, down 1.1% over 24 hours and 2.0% for the week, after briefly falling to $76,393 intraday and later dropping below $76,500 following multiple rejections near $79,000. The repeated failures turned the $79,000 area into a stronger resistance ceiling, with BTC marking its lowest level since August 23. Ethereum fell 2.1% to $2,410, XRP slipped 1.7% to $1.34, and Solana dropped 3.1% to $99.85, though Solana retained a 3.0% weekly gain. Total crypto market capitalization stood at about $2.70 trillion, down 1.6% over the prior day, with 24-hour trading volume at $83.70 billion; another snapshot put total market cap near $2.6 trillion, down nearly 1%.
Macro and derivatives pressure intensified the selloff. Brent crude jumped above $93 per barrel and WTI approached $90 as renewed U.S.-Iran strikes escalated, while the 10-year Treasury yield moved toward 4.8%. Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.31%, S&P 500 futures slipped 0.11%, and the Dollar Index gained 0.13%. In derivatives, shorts accounted for 51.5% of 24-hour taker flow, total futures volume rose 19% to $203 billion, and open interest stayed near $136 billion. Bitcoin futures open interest remained around 700,000 BTC, below this year’s 801,000 BTC peak, suggesting the decline was driven more by active selling than aggressive leveraged short positioning.
Selective altcoin strength showed the selloff was not uniform. Uniswap rose almost 10% to above $6.20 and was among trending searches, up 18.2%. Filecoin gained 14% and BTW added 13%, while TRX, HYPE, ZEC, DOGE, XMR and LINK traded lower. Ether slipped below $2,400, XRP moved under $1.35 and Solana dropped below $100 during the session.
Despite the risk-off tone, August Bitcoin ETF inflows hit $3.5 billion, and a group of 21 major banks, including Citi and Goldman Sachs, reportedly plan a joint stablecoin venture. Separately, Nvidia was said to be in advanced talks to acquire Hugging Face in a deal worth $14 billion. These developments underscored continued institutional interest in crypto and AI infrastructure even as near-term price action remained defensive.
