Market Meltdown: Investors Lose $5.4 Billion—But Wait! There’s More! 😱

Consider this:

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless stipulated otherwise)

The new week to be kicked off with the serene silence of a cryptographic void, as the enigmatic bitcoin attempts to clamber above a trendline, a faint shimmer above the abyss of record high despair—$86K, an imposing ogre lurking in the shadows of resistance, glowering ever so persistently over the weekend.

While FLR, TRX, and SOL danced the cha-cha-cha, outpacing the drab ballet of the broader market, the beleaguered RWA protocol Mantra’s OM token pirouetted into free fall, tumbling down to a mere whisper of 70 cents like a tragic hero in a Shakespearean play.

Mantra, bless their hearts, attributed the disastrous 90% nosedive to the heinous urgencies of forced liquidations found lurking within the treacherous halls of crypto exchanges—ah, the drama! Meanwhile, blockchain detective Spot On Chain revealed a suspicious influx of coins to the malicious lair known as OKX three days prior to the catastrophic collapse, casting aspersions of foul play. OKX’s grand chief, Star Xu, was quick to lament the poor OM token’s fate, describing it as a scandal of biblical proportions, stating that all on-chain data is laid bare like an open book for the voracious critics across all major exchanges.

In other, less scandalous news, data gilded by IntoTheBlock unveiled a delightful upswing in transaction volumes on Virtuals Protocol, a blockchain awakening to whims of AI agents. And speaking of festivities, Arkham Intelligence artfully noted that Mechanism’s Capital Andrew Kang doubled his bullish stake on BTC, now clutching a sumptuous long worth $200 million. 💸

Meanwhile, the New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) prattled on about the newfound stability in the crypto market, claiming it behaved with such decorum during last week’s stock market fracas—like a well-trained circus elephant! They suggest the prospect of a self-reinforcing virtuous cycle—hold the applause, please.

Still clinging to their worries, some investors anticipate bitcoin’s trajectory to remain stuck in a merry-go-round, trapped in the $80K-$90K range, owing to tedious concerns revolving around U.S.-China trade tensions, like an old, creaky ceiling fan that refuses to push through the humidity. Following President Trump’s late Friday magnanimous gesture to exempt select products from tariffs—a crafty move perceived as a willingness to negotiate—investors keep their fingers crossed, albeit nervously!

“BTC continues its dance within the constrained $80K-$90K parameters,” reported QCP Capital in an encrypted Telegram broadcast, noting an uptick in weekend demand for $100K calls, as though they were hymning a prayer.

But wait—Bloomberg’s own Lisa Abramovicz unveiled the undercurrents of skepticism lingering around Trump’s late Friday intrigues. “This remains a market of sold rallies,” she quoted Deutsche Bank’s sage, Steve Caprio. “Tariff uncertainties, growth sluggishness, a Fed poised to misstep like a dancer with two left feet, and fund outflows suggest turbulent waters ahead.”

Nonetheless, some market folks voiced their anxieties over the waning demand for spot bitcoin ETFs, which saw a calamitous outflow of over $700 million last week, according to the oracle known as Farside Investors. “ETF demand appears to be cooling faster than a July afternoon in Siberia. A sharp drop in bitcoin spot ETF assets whispers of institutional exits!” the scribes at CryptoQuant revealed on X.

In the coup de grâce, the major U.S. indexes—the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq—teeter precariously on the precipice of a death cross, a bearish omen where the 50-day simple moving average unceremoniously dips beneath the 200-day SMA—beware the rolling waves of oversold dollar indices beckoning danger! Both movements somehow herald the need for prudent caution when playing with fire.

BTC is up 0.66% from 4 p.m. ET Friday at $84,404.14 (24hrs: -0.61%)
ETH is up 4.5% at $1,642.47 (24hrs: +0.94%)
CoinDesk 20 is up 3.1% at 2,489.90 (24hrs: -1.03%)
Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is down 8 bps at 3.01%
BTC funding rate is set at 0.0177% (6.4725% annualized) on Binance

DXY is down 0.67% at 99.44
Gold is shining bright, up 2.19% at $3,243.50/oz
Silver glistens, up 1.54% at $32.31/oz
Nikkei 225 has closed in jubilance, +1.18% at 33,982.36
Hang Seng revels, closed +2.4% at 21,417.40
FTSE is feeling peppy, up 2.11% at 8,132.15
Euro Stoxx 50 has a spring in its step, +2.32% at 4,898.29
The DJIA grinned at +1.56%, closing on Friday at 40,212.71
S&P 500 celebrated with +1.81% at 5,363.36
Nasdaq basked in the glow of +2.06% at 16,724.46
S&P/TSX Composite Index sparkled, closing up +2.49% at 23,587.80
S&P 40 Latin America caught the breeze at +1.91% at 2,298.75
The U.S. 10-year Treasury rate sauntered down 5 bps at 4.44%
E-mini S&P 500 futures are slightly down, at 1.37% at 5,465.00
E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures fluttered up 1.57% at 19,102.75
E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures felt buoyant, up 0.99% at 40,800.00

Bitcoin Stats:

BTC Dominance: 63.47 (-0.12%)
Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.01944 (1.94%)
Hashrate (seven-day moving average): a staggering 893 EH/s
Hashprice (spot): a cozy $44.0
Total Fees: 4.24 BTC / $358,663
CME Futures Open Interest: 133,945
BTC priced in gold: 26.0/oz
BTC vs gold market cap: a tantalizing 7.37%

Technical Analysis

BTC barely topped the bear market trendline on Saturday, yet has floundered in its quest to garner momentum from that audacious breakout.
The weekend high of $86K looms menacingly as the immediate resistance, trailing the April 2 highs that remain tantalizingly above $88,600 like an unreachable star.

Crypto Equities

Strategy (MSTR): closed on Friday at $299.98 (+10.15%), savoring an upturn of 1.96% at $305.85 in pre-market
Coinbase Global (COIN): happily closed at $175.5 (+3.47%), rising 1.83% to $178.51
Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): basked in glory, closed at C$15.28 (+6.48%)
MARA Holdings (MARA): claimed $12.51 (+6.56%), inching up by 1.12% to $12.65
Riot Platforms (RIOT): merrily closed at $7.06 (+3.98%), with a slight uptick of 1.98% to $7.20
Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $7.07 (+3.67%), gaining just 0.71% to $7.12
CleanSpark (CLSK): partied at $7.50 (+5.19%), zooming up 2.27% to $7.67
CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): finished at $12.91 (+3.12%)—a delightful flourish.
Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $33.76 (+3.46%), but took a slight tumble of 2.22% to $33.01
Exodus Movement (EXOD): basking at $44.08 (+7.33%), unchanged in pre-market—what a relaxed start!

ETF Flows

Spot BTC ETFs:

Daily net flow: a rather abysmal -$1 million
Cumulative net flows: $35.46 billion—oh, the riches! 💰
Total BTC holdings: approximately 1.10 million, but who’s counting?

Spot ETH ETFs

Daily net flow: an alarming -$29.2 million
Cumulative net flows: $2.29 billion—wrapped in mystery.
Total ETH holdings: a substantial 3.38 million, with no end in sight.

Overnight Flows

Chart of the Day

The total value locked inside Ostium Protocol resembles a valuable treasure chest, an open-sourced, decentralized exchange dancing joyously on Ethereum Layer 2 Arbitrum.
This beacon of stability radiantly signifies a growing demand for DeFi as the sub-sector heroically holds steady, defiantly rebuffing the recent week’s market debacle. 🌊✨