Tech Selloff Pulls Crypto Lower as SpaceX Shorts Pile Up
Bitcoin fell 2.5% to around $62,300 and ether dropped past 4% as a Nasdaq tech selloff spilled into crypto, with $717 million wiped out.
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Crypto sold off on Tuesday as the slide in tech stocks bled into digital assets. Bitcoin traded around $62,300, down 2.5% on the day. Ether took the harder hit, falling more than 4% to $1,650. Across the market, $717 million in positions were liquidated, amplifying the downswings.
Tech Stocks Spark the Selloff
The trigger sat outside crypto. Monday's downturn in technology stocks rolled into Tuesday, with Nasdaq 100 futures off 2.5% since midnight UTC. Patrick Munnelly, market strategy partner at TickMill, pinned the weakness on profit-taking and the risk of higher bond yields. The Dollar Index climbed to 101.15, its highest reading since May 2025, tightening the screws on risk assets. Altcoins fared worse than the majors, with ethena and hype each shedding 5% to 6%.
Leverage Tilts Toward SpaceX
The sharpest tell came from an asset that isn't crypto at all. Open interest in SpaceX perpetuals listed on Hyperliquid, Binance and other venues jumped 10% even as the price dropped 15%, the biggest OI increase among major tokens. That is leverage stacking on the short side, and it points to traders reaching for traditional assets over blockchain-native ones. SpaceX futures are now the sixth-largest in the world, ahead of zcash and trailing only bitcoin, ether and XRP.
Elsewhere the positioning read defensive. Bitcoin futures open interest slipped to 720,000 BTC from 742,000 a week earlier, down from a peak near 800,000 early this month. XRP futures pushed to eight-month highs at 2.38 billion tokens, yet its cumulative volume delta has been negative for two straight days, a sign sellers are hitting the bid rather than waiting at limit. Both volatility gauges, BVIV and EVIV, turned up from the low 40s. Heading into Friday's quarterly expiry, long call positions are underwater while puts sit in the money, and the put-call skew shows traders still paying up for downside cover.
Privacy Coins Buck the Slide
Not everything bled. Privacy coins held their ground, with dash off just 0.2% and monero around 0.7%, even as rival zcash dropped 4.2% in the wake of this month's exploit. AI tokens fell too, with RENDER and TAO down 3% to 5%. The one number bulls can point to: the average crypto RSI sat at 39.05, deep enough into oversold territory to leave room for a relief rally before the week is out.
Sources
- Crypto market drops as Nasdaq tech selloff spills into digital assets
Disclosure
Our stories are produced with a combination of human writers and AI tools, and every article is reviewed by a human editor before publication. Read more in our editorial policy. This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial, investment, or legal advice. Crypto assets are volatile and you can lose money — always do your own research.