Bitcoin swung sharply during Monday's Asian trading session, dropping more than 5% to $64,270 shortly after midnight UTC before recovering to $66,300 by 11:00 UTC. The move tracked a similar pattern in U.S. equity futures, where S&P 500 futures fell 0.84% after Sunday evening's open and began to recover roughly five hours later.
Precious metals moved the other way. Gold futures jumped at the Sunday open to their highest level since Jan. 30, then gave back part of the gain during European hours, while silver followed the same direction. The shift toward havens came after U.S. President Donald Trump said he planned new 15% global tariffs on trading partners and as increased U.S. military presence near Iran added to risk aversion.
Thin liquidity magnified losses across altcoins
Altcoins came under heavier pressure in the overnight session as weak liquidity amplified price moves. SOL and SUI both fell between 7% and 8% before bouncing during European trading. According to CoinGlass, the move triggered roughly $270 million in altcoin liquidations.
Broader derivatives data showed stress across the market. In the past 24 hours, exchanges forcibly closed $500 million in crypto futures positions because of margin shortfalls. At the same time, demand for leverage remained muted, with total crypto futures open interest staying below $100 billion for more than two weeks.
Capital rotation was visible in niche products tied to traditional safe-haven assets. Open interest in Tether Gold (XAUT) futures rose 14% in 24 hours, while BTC, ETH, SOL, HYPE and DOGE continued to see outflows. On the flow side, ZEC and CRO were the only tokens showing a positive 24-hour cumulative volume delta, pointing to buyer dominance, while BTC and other major tokens remained under selling pressure.
Options markets showed fresh demand for downside protection
Derivatives pricing turned more defensive as volatility expectations climbed. Bitcoin's 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV, rose 9% to above 60%. Traders bought bitcoin puts at $58,000, $60,000 and $62,000, reflecting demand for hedges after the tariff announcement injected new uncertainty into the market.
On Deribit, bitcoin and ether puts traded at a premium to calls across all maturities. That pricing pattern suggested downside concerns were still present even after spot prices rebounded from the session low.
PUMP and ZRO lagged, while ETHFI and TON held up better
The wider altcoin market remained in negative territory on Monday after bitcoin weakness and soft U.S. equity futures set off an exaggerated selloff. Pump.fun's native PUMP token lost 8.5% before rebounding. LayerZero's ZRO started falling earlier on Sunday, dropping 16.5% over 24 hours before recovering after 04:00 UTC.
A smaller group of tokens outperformed. Restaking token ETHFI rose more than 10% from Monday morning's low, while Telegram-linked TON proved relatively steady, falling only 3.6% overnight before bouncing 4.9%. Among CoinDesk sector gauges, the DeFi Select Index (DFX) was the strongest benchmark in the past 24 hours, down 1.84%, compared with losses of 3.56% in the Smart Contract Platform Select Index and 3.23% in the Computing Select Index.