After a brief recovery earlier this week, the cryptocurrency market has turned red once more, with Bitcoin slipping below $108,000 and Ethereum losing its $4,000 support level.
The downturn has triggered another wave of sell-offs across major altcoins, erasing much of the progress made during the recent rebound.
Among the hardest hit today are several mid-cap tokens that had shown strong momentum earlier this month. Here’s a closer look at the top five biggest decliners in the market.
1. Aster (ASTER) – Sharp Pullback After Record Trading Volume
Aster has dropped over 12% in the past 24 hours, bringing its price just under $1. The token, known for powering a multichain smart contract hub designed for interoperability between Polkadot and Ethereum, has faced heavy profit-taking after a surge in activity last week. Despite the correction, trading volume remains high at over $827 million, suggesting that speculative activity is still intense around ASTER.
2. MYX Finance (MYX) – DeFi Sentiment Turns Negative
MYX Finance, a decentralized liquidity and lending protocol, saw its token price tumble nearly 12% to $2.74. The pullback follows a slowdown in DeFi inflows across most platforms, as investors react to Ethereum’s latest drop and declining staking yields. MYX still holds a market capitalization of around $566 million but has lost over 11% this week as risk appetite fades.
3. Plasma (XPL) – Volatile Trading Hits Layer-1 Challenger
Plasma, positioned as a high-performance Layer-1 blockchain focused on scalability and modular smart contract design, also joined the losers’ list with a 9.8% daily decline. XPL has now fallen over 30% in the last seven days, despite ongoing updates to its network infrastructure. With $1 billion in daily trading volume earlier this week, the correction points to short-term overextension among traders.
4. Morpho (MORPHO) – Lending Protocol Faces Pressure
Morpho, another decentralized finance platform that integrates directly with leading money markets like Aave and Compound, saw its token price fall by more than 9%.
The decline comes amid broader weakness in the DeFi sector, where leveraged positions have been unwound following the market-wide correction. Morpho’s current market cap sits near $638 million, reflecting cautious sentiment among yield-focused investors.
5. Mantle (MNT) – Layer-2 Giant Loses Momentum
Mantle’s MNT token, which powers the modular Ethereum Layer-2 network backed by BitDAO, shed 7.7% in the last 24 hours. The token’s weekly loss now exceeds 16%, showing how even top-tier scaling solutions are not immune to macro-driven sell pressure. Despite the pullback, Mantle remains one of the largest players in the Layer-2 sector, boasting a market cap above $5.2 billion.
Broader Market Outlook: Recovery Stalls as Bitcoin and Ethereum Retreat
The wider crypto market is once again under strain. Bitcoin’s inability to hold above $108,000 has reignited bearish sentiment, while Ethereum’s slip below the $4,000 mark has weakened confidence in altcoin performance. Analysts warn that the recent bounce might have been a temporary relief rally, with liquidity thinning across spot and derivatives markets.
Still, long-term fundamentals remain intact, and some traders see this decline as an opportunity to accumulate strong projects at discounted prices. Whether that optimism holds will depend on how Bitcoin performs in the coming days, as its dominance continues to dictate the broader market’s direction.
