Crypto Markets Slide as Bitcoin Retraces Gains, Altcoins Weaken
Crypto markets remained under pressure on Tuesday, with Bitcoin giving up last week’s gains and altcoins extending losses amid persistent investor caution.
Bitcoin traded near $87,000, down from last week’s high of $92,350, as hopes for a December “Santa rally” failed to materialize. The market remains in “extreme fear” following Monday’s sell-off, which dented investor confidence.
Altcoins underperformed, with several tokens losing more than 5% over 24 hours, led by privacy coins. Bitcoin has now retraced nearly the entire Nov. 21–28 rally, underperforming U.S. equities; the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 6.6% during the same period.
Futures markets show continued outflows for BTC, ETH, XRP, and SOL, with open interest falling up to 6% in the past 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 90-day annualized basis has dropped to 4–5%, while Ether’s basis nears 3–4%. Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility (BVIV) is rising relative to Wall Street’s VIX, signaling heightened uncertainty. The ETH-BTC volatility spread narrowed to 21.50, the tightest since May, suggesting expectations of more turbulence.
Options activity indicates sustained put skews, with block trades favoring put spreads and calendar call diagonals in BTC, while ETH traders targeted risk reversals and put spreads.
Among altcoins, ETH and XRP fell roughly 0.6% over 24 hours, while Bitcoin gained 0.75%. Privacy coins led losses: Zcash (ZEC) dropped 8%, Monero (XMR) and Dash (DASH) fell 5–6%, suggesting the privacy coin rally may have been short-lived.
CoinMarketCap’s “altcoin season” indicator remains low at 24/100, highlighting ongoing preference for Bitcoin and select yield-generating DeFi tokens. SKY (formerly MKR) rose 6.7% after announcing token buybacks, supported by growing interest in USDS (formerly DAI), which now has a $9.5 billion market cap and offers 4.5% staking yield.
