The crypto market is teetering on the brink of a major breakdown after suffering one of its worst weeks since July 2024. Bitcoin trades around $62,500, down 14.5% since midnight UTC on Monday, while Ether has plunged more than 17%, falling 5.5% on Friday alone. Ether now sits at its lowest level since April 2025, when it bounced at $1,420 before rallying to record highs. A break below that support would bring it toward 2022 bear-market levels below $900.
Altcoins hammered; Zcash falls 30% on exploit
The broader altcoin market also suffered deep losses. Zcash (ZEC) tumbled more than 30% on Friday after a security researcher discovered an exploit that could have minted "unlimited" tokens in its shielded pool.
Catalysts: AI IPOs drain liquidity, spot volumes shrink
Strategy (MSTR) Executive Chairman Michael Saylor attributed the slide to capital rotation from a series of artificial intelligence IPOs in the U.S. Onchain analysts point to a lack of spot crypto volume: CryptoQuant reports that spot trading volume fell to $679 billion in April, the lowest monthly level since October 2023, signaling weak demand.
Derivatives positioning turns defensive
BTC derivatives positioning has flipped from mild improvement to clear deleveraging. Open interest dropped 15% to $17 billion, with funding rates flipping negative to flat across venues. At Deribit, the rate dropped to -15% annualized, a notable reversal from the prior positive regime. The three-month annualized basis fell to 2.7% from 2.9% last week, confirming a pullback in institutional risk appetite.
Options positioning has turned defensive: Put/call volume flipped to a 50/50 split over the past 24 hours, losing the prior call tilt, while the one-week 25-delta skew more than doubled to 27% from 13% a week ago, signaling a sharp escalation in demand for downside protection. Front-end implied volatility (DVOL) climbed further to 47, confirming a sustained bid aligned with derivatives deleveraging.
Coinglass data shows $1.2 billion in 24-hour liquidations, with a 76-24 split between longs and shorts. Bitcoin ($364 million), Ether ($291 million) and Zcash ($107 million) led notional liquidations. The Binance liquidation heatmap indicates $60,900 as a core BTC liquidation level to monitor in case of a price drop.