Tuesday, 02 January 2024 12:17 GMT

After Bitcoin's Brutal Month, Crypto Tests Its Faith In Leverage And The State


(MENAFN- The Rio Times) The crypto market wakes up trying to steady itself after one of its darkest months in years. Global market value sits near $3 trillion, up about 1% overnight yet still far from October's peak.

Bitcoin trades around $87,000, Ethereum near $2,850, with most large coins slightly higher after a Sunday bounce from extreme oversold levels.

Behind that modest green lies a heavy unwind. Spot bitcoin ETFs have posted record weekly volumes near $40 billion but several billion dollars of net outflows.

Stablecoin supply is shrinking and highly marketed“digital-asset treasury” strategies are being cut back. Capital is not rotating inside crypto; it is leaving.

Technical signals match the mood. On four-hour charts, Bitcoin has slid from six-figure prices into the low-$80,000s, then bounced inside a still-bearish channel.



MACD has turned up from historic lows and RSI has climbed from extreme oversold, pointing to relief rather than a new bull leg.
Crypto crash exposes fragility but not faith
Daily and weekly charts show broken support, price below all main moving averages and momentum indicators still negative, even if they are starting to flatten.

Earlier in the month the sell-off was amplified by leverage and derivatives plumbing. A tariff threat against China hit a market stacked with futures, options and complex“delta-neutral” trades.

Machines sold into falling prices, roughly $20 billion in positions were liquidated, a record options expiry forced dealers to dump exposure, and at least one major fund and market maker are believed to have failed.

Yet the damage stopped well short of past 80–90% collapses. Long-term buyers are quietly adding coins, and some analysts still see a path back to $100,000 over the next cycle.

Ethereum mirrors Bitcoin 's pattern, while XRP and Dogecoin outperform on the launch of new US ETFs. Privacy coins like Zcash and Monero surge as investors seek distance from official oversight.

At the fringes, micro-caps swing from plus 60% to minus 20% in a day, underlining how casino-like parts of the market remain. For savers who mistrust swelling public debts, delayed data and improvising bureaucracies, the message is paradoxical.

The crash punished reckless leverage and exposed fragile market plumbing, especially offshore. It did not kill the appeal of scarce assets that cannot be printed or rewritten by committee.

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The Rio Times

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