The crypto market saw massive selloffs on Thursday, causing the total market cap to fall more than 1% from $3.04 trillion to $2.98 trillion over the last 24 hours. Over $60 billion was wiped out further during the broader crypto market selloffs.
BTC pared earlier gains and fell back to $87K levels, with Friday’s $8.5 billion BTC options expiry potentially taking the price further lower. On Wednesday, CoinGape alerted about an upcoming Bitcoin price crash this week.
ETH also failed to hold upside momentum and dropped more than 2% to a low of $2,934 amid intense selling pressure. Top altcoins including XRP, SOL, DOGE, ADA, HYPE, and WLD saw massive profit booking after the US FED held rates steady and Jerome Powell highlighted a hawkish outlook.
Furthermore, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index slipped from 29 to 26 (fear) over the past 24 hours, indicating that positive sentiment among traders is waning.
Jerome Powell Signals Fed Rate Cut Pause amid Hawkish Tone
The US FED kept interest rates steady following a two-day FOMC meeting, signaling the start of an interest rate pause cycle. Federal Reserve officials voted 10-2 to leave interest rates unchanged.
Fed Governors Stephen Miran and Chris Waller favored a 25 bps rate cut. The committee will continue to assess incoming data to adjust monetary policy.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell clarified that a rate hike isn’t the base case for anyone at the moment. The central bank is unlikely to make further rate cuts unless the labor market weakens again.
CME FedWatch Tool shows that market participants are already pricing in the possibility of the Fed holding interest rates steady at the March FOMC meeting.
The US dollar index (DXY) holds slightly above 96 after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dismissed speculation of US intervention to support Japanese yen. Moreover, the US 10-year Treasury yield also rose slightly to 4.265%.
The rising uncertainty triggered crypto market selloffs, with BTC and ETH prices falling as traders turned cautious.
Massive Liquidations amid Crypto Market Selloffs
CoinGlass data shows almost $350 million liquidated from leading crypto assets in the last 24 hours. More than 118K traders were liquidated in the last 24 hours. The largest single liquidation order of BTC happened on Hyperliquid, which was valued at $31.64 million.
Notably, almost $250 million in long and $100 million in short positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours. $105 million in long positions got liquidated in just an hour.
BTC, ETH, XAU, HYPE, SOL, WLD, XRP, RIVER, ENA, ZEC, DOGE, JTO, and SUI were the most liquidated in the past 24 hours. Worldcoin price spiked as Sam Altman’s OpenAI is exploring a biometric social media platform to fight online bots, but pared earlier gains.
On-Chain Data Signals Weakness Ahead of Options Expiry
Glassnode reported that BTC is consolidating with muted trading volumes, with spot interest rebuilding slowly and options traders leaning bearish. Notably, long-term Bitcoin holders have sold about 143,000 BTC in the past 30 days, the fastest pace since August.
BTC options with a notional value of $8.5 billion to expire on Friday, with a put-call ratio of 0.56. The max pain price is at $90,000, with options traders hedging for downside protection.
Meanwhile, Santiment noted that Bitcoin ETFs saw significant outflows leading up to the FED interest rate decision. In the last seven trading days, spot BTC ETFs have recorded a total of $1.86 billion in net outflows. It also highlighted money flows and trading volume in ETH, XRP, and SOL.
Bitcoin ETFs saw a net outflow of $19.6 million on Wednesday. BlackRock Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) led with $14.2 million in outflows. Capital rotates out of crypto into equities, gold, and metals.
Meanwhile, analyst Ted Pillows noted that Coinbase Bitcoin Premium continues to deteriorate. Institutional investors continue to sell BTC for other assets.
