Bitcoin, ether extend declines as leverage unwind accelerates: Crypto Markets Today

Markets Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Bitcoin, ether extend declines as leverage unwind accelerates: Crypto Markets Today Crypto markets fell further overnight as bitcoin and ether extended losses, metals tumbled and liquidation pressure hit leveraged traders across derivatives markets. By Oliver Knight , Omkar Godbole | Edited by Sheldon Reback Jan 30, 2026, 11:30 a.m. Make us preferred on Google Dollar strengthens (Ryan Quintal/Unsplash, Modified by CoinDesk) What to know : Bitcoin and ether extended declines as the crypto market compounded Thursday's selloff. Silver and gold also fell, adding to broader market weakness alongside a firmer dollar. Crypto liquidations hit $1.8 billion, while bitcoin dominance slipped as traders rotated into riskier altcoins. The crypto market selloff accelerated overnight with bitcoin BTC $ 82,638.56 and ether ETH $ 2,734.66 falling by a further 2.7% and 3.5%, respectively, since midnight UTC to compound Thursday's miserable session. The drawdown comes alongside heavy losses for precious metals, with silver now trading at $96 following a 20% drop from Thursday's record high of $121. Gold is trading back below $5,000 after tumbling by 11% from Wednesday's $5,600 high. STORY CONTINUES BELOW Don't miss another story. Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today . See all newsletters Sign me up By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms & conditions and privacy policy . U.S. equity index futures ticked lower while the dollar index (DXY) posted a 0.57% gain, buoyed by the expectation that Kevin Warsh looks set to become new the Federal Reserve chairman . The global market rout, which saw bitcoin hit its lowest level since November, led to $1.8 billion in liquidations across crypto markets as leverage traders were caught off-guard by the precipitous fall despite a weak start to the year for crypto. The bitcoin-dominant CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20 ) is now down by 6.6% since the turn of the year while the altcoin heavy CoinDesk 80 (CD80), outperforming its counterpart, has lost 2.28%. Derivatives positioning The market swoon shook out leveraged crypto futures bets worth $1.8 billion in 24 hours. This represents massive wealth destruction over and above the decline in the market capitalization. Investor confidence dented by such losses typically takes time to rebuild. Open interest (OI) in futures tied to most major cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ether, has declined alongside large liquidations. DOGE stands out with a 2% increase in OI, which is reflective of traders shorting the dip. An uptick in OI alongside a drop in price is said to indicate that. Annualized perpetual funding rates for BTC, ETH, XRP and several other tokens have flipped negative, a sign of growing demand for downside bets. Bitcoin's 30-day implied volatility, as measured by Volmex's BVIV, jumped to 47% from 40%, indicating a rise in demand for options, or hedging contracts, in the wake of the price selloff. BVIV is not alone, Wall Street's equivalent, the VIX, also spiked Thursday. On Deribit, bitcoin and ether puts have become more pricier than calls, indicating a growing demand for downside protection. Block flows featured BTC put spreads, a bearish strategy. In ether's case, traders preferred a put butterfly, a market-neutral limited risk, limited reward play. Token talk Layer-1 blockchain Canton's native token, CC, was the only top-100 cryptocurrency in the black over the past 24 hours as it managed to avoid a broader market selloff, rising by 3.35%. Privacy coins monero XMR $ 436.71 , zcash ZEC $ 333.85 and dash DASH $ 51.69 all experienced heavy losses since midnight UTC, falling by roughly 5% as investor optimism around the sector begins to fade. Despite relative weakness across the market, bitcoin dominance dropped to 58.73% to suggest that investors are opting for speculative altcoin plays in an attempt to outperform the market. One of those speculative bets, RIVER, spectacularly unwound this week with it having lost 55% of its value since Monday, compounded by a 25% drop over the past 24 hours. RIVER's plight comes after an 884% rally between Jan. 1 and Jan. 26 as traders now begin to lock in profits. Friday was a volatile session for those trading tokenized silver on HyperLiquid, with CoinGlass data showing that one long position worth $47 million was liquidated in European hours after the metal fell to $96. Crypto Markets Today Derivatives More For You Pudgy Penguins: A New Blueprint for Tokenized Culture By CoinDesk Research Dec 30, 2025 Commissioned by Pudgy Penguins Pudgy Penguins is building a multi-vertical consumer IP platform — combining phygital products, games, NFTs and PENGU to monetize culture at scale. What to know : Pudgy Penguins is emerging as one of the strongest NFT-native brands of this cycle, shifting from speculative “digital luxury goods” into a multi-vertical consumer IP platform. Its strategy is to acquire users through mainstream channels first; toys, retail partnerships and viral media, then onboard them into Web3 through games, NFTs and the PENGU token. The ecosystem now spans phygital products (> $13M retail sales and >1M units sold), games and experiences (Pudgy Party surpassed 500k downloads in two weeks), and a widely distributed token (airdropped to 6M+ wallets). While the market is currently pricing Pudgy at a premium relative to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution across retail expansion, gaming adoption and deeper token utility. View Full Report More For You Gold's six-month rally versus bitcoin shows similarities to the 2019 cycle By James Van Straten | Edited by Sheldon Reback 38 minutes ago The bitcoin-to-gold ratio rebounded from recent lows, mirroring a pattern seen in the 2019-2020. What to know : Bitcoin is on track for a sixth consecutive red monthly candle against gold, a pattern last seen in 2019/20. The bitcoin-to-gold ratio has rebounded to around 16.3 after briefly falling to 15.5 as gold and silver declined more sharply than bitcoin over the past 24 hours. A potential bottom in the ratio would not necessarily signal bitcoin strength, but could instead reflect continued underperformance in gold relative to bitcoin Read full story Latest Crypto News Gold's six-month rally versus bitcoin shows similarities to the 2019 cycle 38 minutes ago U.S. dollar strength and volatility surge as markets nervously await U.S. open 43 minutes ago Vitalik Buterin to spend $43 million on Ethereum development 1 hour ago U.S. listed bitcoin, ether ETFs bleed nearly $1 billion in a day 1 hour ago Binance to shift $1 billion user protection fund into bitcoin amid market rout 5 hours ago Plunge in gold, silver, and copper sparks $120 million rout in blockchain metal clones 5 hours ago Top Stories Here's why Fed contender Kevin Warsh is seen as bearish for bitcoin 5 hours ago Bitcoin is going nuts with biggest volatility spike since November 6 hours ago XRP bulls lose $70 million as Ripple-linked token plunges 7% 6 hours ago Rollercoaster bitcoin price moves end up liquidating $1.7 billion in bullish crypto bets 6 hours ago In this article XMR XMR $ 436.71 ◢ 6.28 % ZEC ZEC $ 333.85 ◢ 7.79 % DASH DASH $ 51.69 ◢ 9.56 %