The crypto market sell-off deepened on Tuesday, with altcoins taking the brunt of the pressure as investors rotated aggressively into traditional safe havens.
Key Takeaways
Altcoins are leading the crash, underperforming Bitcoin across the board.
Liquidations surged, intensifying the sell-off as long positions were wiped out.
Fear is driving flows into gold and silver, which are sharply outperforming crypto.
While Bitcoin extended its decline, losses across major altcoins accelerated, sharply contrasting with a powerful rally in precious metals.
Altcoins under heavy pressure
Ethereum slid roughly 10% over the past 24 hours and is now down close to 30% on the week, underscoring how quickly risk appetite has evaporated. Solana followed with a steep drop of more than 20% over seven days, while BNB also extended its losses as broad-based selling hit large-cap tokens.
XRP and Cardano failed to find meaningful support as well, both posting high single-digit daily declines and double-digit weekly losses. The pattern is consistent across the market: altcoins are leading the downside as investors unwind higher-risk exposure.
Bitcoin weak, but relative resilience remains
Bitcoin continues to trade lower, hovering near the mid-$73,000 area, down more than 6% on the day and over 16% on the week. While the move is significant, Bitcoin has still outperformed most major altcoins, reinforcing its role as the relative safe haven within crypto during stress periods.
However, downside momentum remains strong, and sentiment around short-term direction is fragile.
Liquidations accelerate the sell-off
Forced liquidations have amplified the move. Total crypto liquidations over the past 24 hours reached roughly $569 million, with long positions accounting for about $458 million of that total.
Bitcoin and Ethereum alone represented a large share of the wiped-out leverage, highlighting how crowded long positioning had become before the sell-off. As prices slipped, cascading liquidations added fuel to an already fragile market.
Macro fear drives the risk-off shift
Beyond crypto-specific factors, macro uncertainty is dominating investor psychology. Reports of heightened geopolitical tensions, including fears of escalation following a US shutdown of an Iranian drone, have pushed markets firmly into risk-off mode.
At the same time, uncertainty around the newly appointed Fed chair and the future path of monetary policy has added another layer of anxiety. With policy direction unclear and geopolitical risks rising, traders are reducing exposure to volatile assets first.
Extreme fear grips markets as metals surge
Market sentiment has swung decisively toward extreme fear. That shift is clearly visible in cross-asset flows. Gold has surged around 6% in a short period, while silver has jumped roughly 8.5%, significantly outperforming both equities and crypto. The divergence highlights a classic flight to safety, with capital moving out of speculative assets like altcoins and into hard assets perceived as protection against instability.
Altcoins vs metals: a stark divergence
The current market dynamic is defined by this contrast. Altcoins are facing aggressive drawdowns as liquidity dries up and leverage is flushed out, while gold and silver benefit from fear-driven demand. Until macro uncertainty eases and risk sentiment stabilizes, the pressure on altcoins is likely to remain elevated, even if Bitcoin manages to find short-term support.
