Ether fell as much as 9% in a single session on Monday, wiping out $500 million in bets.
\nBitcoin traded 0.8% lower, with nervous positioning seen in options.
\n$23 billion in Bitcoin and Ether contracts are due to expire on Friday.<\/p>\n
A sharp crash on Monday wiped more than $1.5 billion from leveraged cryptocurrency positions, underscoring how fragile digital asset markets remain.<\/p>\n
The sudden liquidation wave, one of the largest this year, unfolded without a clear catalyst and hit Ether especially hard.<\/p>\n
By Tuesday morning in Asia, the dust had begun to settle, but prices remained under pressure and traders were braced for more turbulence as a record options expiry approached.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Ether led the declines with losses of up to 9%, sparking the unwinding of nearly $500 million in bullish bets.<\/p>\n
Bitcoin also retreated, falling sharply before stabilising with a smaller 0.8% decline.<\/p>\n
In total, more than $1.5 billion in leveraged positions were forced out across exchanges, making it one of the year\u2019s biggest liquidation events after months of speculative rallies.<\/p>\n
Analysts said the drop showed how quickly leverage combined with thin liquidity can turn into widespread selling.<\/p>\n
By Tuesday morning in Asia, the market was calmer, though sentiment remained cautious.<\/p>\n
Ether trimmed its losses to around 0.9%, while Bitcoin also traded 0.8% lower.<\/p>\n
Options activity pointed to traders positioning for further swings rather than stability, with significant bets placed on Bitcoin falling below $95,000 or rising above $140,000 before the month-end.<\/p>\n
The appetite for protection in both directions highlighted just how unsettled sentiment has become.<\/p>\n
Deribit data showed that roughly $23 billion of Bitcoin and Ether options contracts are due to expire on Friday, one of the largest expiries ever recorded.<\/p>\n
This event has amplified caution across the market, with traders expecting volatility to dominate in the near term.<\/p>\n
Short-term options have grown in popularity as investors look for cheaper exposure to sudden price moves, turning volatility itself into the trade.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, crypto treasury firms that earlier drove demand by raising funds to buy tokens have slowed their purchases.<\/p>\n
With share prices falling, these companies have less capacity to raise capital, reducing support for prices and adding to downward pressure.<\/p>\n
Data from Binance shows open interest in perpetual futures has surged over the past few months, with Ether seeing the strongest speculative activity.<\/p>\n
The structure has left the token more exposed to sharp reversals, acting as a higher-beta proxy for digital asset sentiment in periods of stress.<\/p>\n
Bitcoin, by contrast, has shown relatively steadier trading thanks to deeper liquidity and its growing role in institutional portfolios.<\/p>\n
Even so, analysts caution that the higher levels of leverage in the system compared to last year mean the risk of large swings remains.<\/p>\n
With the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates, some expect new inflows to offset selling pressure, but links between Bitcoin and equities suggest macro policy will continue to shape its path.<\/p>\n
The post Crypto market calm after Monday\u2019s crash: what\u2019s going on?<\/a> appeared first on CoinJournal<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ether fell as much as 9% in a single session on Monday, wiping out $500 million in bets. Bitcoin traded 0.8% lower, with nervous positioning seen in options. $23 billion in Bitcoin and Ether contracts are due to expire on Friday. A sharp crash on Monday wiped more than $1.5 billion from leveraged cryptocurrency positions, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4787","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ethereum"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}