Crypto markets saw continued selling pressure on Wednesday, with most large-cap assets posting losses while a handful of smaller tokens recorded outsized gains, highlighting a sharp divergence in investor appetite.
Bitcoin (BTC) dropped 4.1% to $67,176.72, with daily volume exceeding $62.34 billion and market cap steady near $1.34 trillion. Ethereum (ETH) fared worse, sliding 5.3% to $1,875.52 on more than $27.1 billion in trade. BNB fell 5.7% to $643.89, the weakest among top-tier coins, while Solana (SOL) lost 5.5% to $75.09. Dogecoin (DOGE) slipped 4.9% to $0.09427 as risk-off mood weighed on meme tokens.
XRP Shows Relative Strength
XRP declined only 2.1% to $1.24, a markedly smaller drop compared with BTC, ETH, BNB, and SOL. It notched over $3.22 billion in daily turnover and held a market capitalization above $77 billion, suggesting some resilience amid the broader rout.
Small-Cap Tokens Spike as Capital Rotates
While large caps bled, lower-ranked tokens attracted heavy buying. Backpack (BP) skyrocketed 87.0% to $0.2769, with volume topping $7.29 million. Yei Finance (CLO) gained 42.5%, aPriori (APR) rose 39.1%, Marvell Technology tokenized stock (MRVLON) climbed 30.3%, and MYX Finance (MYX) added 28.8%. Other tokens including Anoma (XAN), Genius (GENIUS), MEME HORSE (MHORSE), TROLL (TROLL), and Lighter (LIT) all posted gains above 20%.
Money clearly rotated from established coins into speculative small-cap names, a pattern that could persist if risk appetite remains bifurcated.