Bitcoin surged 2% overnight to begin Monday's European session at $62,600, catching many traders off guard with a bullish move that followed the previous weekend's recovery above $63,000. According to 99Bitcoins, $70 million of the $120 million in Bitcoin liquidations over the past 24 hours came from short positions, indicating renewed buying pressure. The cryptocurrency remains down roughly 15% in the past week despite the recent gains, having dropped to its lowest level in more than two months due to a combination of negative catalysts including large outflows from crypto spot exchange-traded funds and persistent U.S.-Iran tensions. The decline came amid a sharp repricing of Federal Reserve expectations following Friday's nonfarm payrolls report, with strong labor market data prompting investors to scale back expectations for interest rate cuts.
Kalshi has significantly expanded its crypto derivatives platform by adding XRP perpetual futures to its regulated perp trading platform, marking the company's largest product expansion since introducing event contracts. The platform is offering zero trading fees for a limited time to users who join a waitlist, allowing U.S. investors to trade crypto perpetuals on a CFTC-regulated platform for the first time. Unlike traditional futures, perpetual contracts do not have expiration dates and use periodic funding payments to keep prices aligned with underlying spot markets. Kalshi had previously launched Bitcoin and Ethereum perpetuals and now offers XRP contracts with zero fees for a limited period, representing a major advancement in regulated crypto derivatives trading.
Tom Lee and Bitmine have maintained their aggressive Ethereum accumulation strategy, purchasing $41 million worth of ETH in the latest transaction, bringing total purchases to 125,000 ETH over recent days. According to 99Bitcoins, this brings the firm's total ETH holdings to 4.594% of the total supply, less than 0.5% away from achieving their goal of holding 5% of the ETH supply. The firm continues to earn additional yield by staking between 85-90% of their 5.5 million ETH stash, earning 2-3% APY on their holdings. Despite closing in on $10 billion in unrealized losses from their Ethereum accumulation strategy over the past year, the firm has not been deterred from continuing their treasury strategy pivot.
The cryptocurrency market experienced severe pressure with heavy selling triggering a wave of liquidations across leveraged positions. Data from CoinGlass showed approximately $1.6 billion in positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours, with long positions accounting for the majority of losses. Bitcoin represented more than $500 million of those liquidations, while ether accounted for over $400 million. Trading volume has declined from $85 billion yesterday to $81 billion today, indicating declining participation among traders. The broader crypto prices tumbled on Saturday, tracking declines in Bitcoin, with ether falling more than 20% over the past week while Solana, XRP, Dogecoin, and BNB posted double-digit declines during the same period. Market participants are now closely watching the $60,000 level, with a sustained break below that threshold potentially opening the door to further downside.
Despite Bitcoin's recent recovery, institutional flows continue to weigh on sentiment, with U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recording significant outflows of $213 million yesterday, the largest outflow since June 5 when more than $325 million exited various funds. BlackRock continues to be the biggest seller of BTC via ETFs, contributing to the continued institutional pressure. The slight uptick across the market is evidenced in the Fear & Greed Index climbing from 9/100 yesterday to 12/100, though such a small gain suggests traders remain cautious and expect another pullback. The broader market pressure extended well beyond cryptocurrencies, with the Nasdaq 100 falling roughly 5%, marking its steepest decline since April 2025, while semiconductor stocks posted double-digit losses.
