Bitcoin extended its November collapse on Friday, falling below $85,000 for the first time since April, as a cascade of leveraged liquidations and collapse sentiment deepened what is shaping up to be the worst monthly decline since crypto winter 2022.
BTC briefly touched $81,600 before stabilizing near $84,000, erasing its year-to-date gains and putting the market back to levels last seen before the January ETF surge.
On major tokens, the damage is spreading rapidly. Ether fell below $2,750, down almost 14% from last week. Solana fell more than 10% in 24 hours, while XRP, BNB and Cardano recorded drops of between 8 and 15%. In total, large companies have retreated between 20% and 35% from their November highs, and smaller capitalization companies have fared much worse.
The selloff coincides with nearly $2 billion in liquidations in the past 24 hours, CoinGlass data shows. Bitcoin accounted for $964 million of that total, followed by ether at $407 million and a broad wave of forced breakups into altcoins.
Approximately 396,000 traders were liquidated, with the largest elimination (a $36.7 million BTC position) occurring on Hyperliquid.
Conditions outside of cryptocurrencies are helping little. Global stocks have posted their worst week in seven months, as doubts over protracted AI-driven valuations and the likelihood of Federal Reserve rate cuts in December weigh on sentiment.
The MSCI All Country World Index has fallen more than 3 percent this week, while US technology stocks remain under pressure. Treasuries caught a bid, a classic sign of capital fleeing risk.
Crypto-specific flows continue to worsen. U.S.-listed bitcoin ETFs recorded more than $900 million in net outflows on Thursday, their second-worst day since their launch in early 2024. Open interest in perpetual futures has fallen 35% from October’s high near $94 billion, further reducing liquidity across the board.
Retail confidence is deteriorating just as quickly. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index fell to 11 on Monday, well within “extreme fear” territory and its lowest reading since late 2022.
Historically, these levels have preceded major lows, but now that the price has broken out of multi-month support and institutional flows are reversing, the market has yet to show signs of stabilization.
