Crypto markets are closing out their worst week since July 2024 with Bitcoin down nearly 15% since Monday and Ether plunging more than 17% — the second-largest cryptocurrency now approaching the $1,420 level that served as its April 2025 bottom before a four-month rally to record highs. A break below that level would open the door to 2022 bear market territory, when Ether traded below $900.
Bitcoin was trading around $61,000 at the time of writing, having touched lows near $60,789 — a level that places the February cycle low of $60,000 within immediate striking distance. The Binance liquidation heatmap identifies $60,900 as a core BTC liquidation level to monitor if prices continue to decline.
The week's damage: every major metric deteriorating
The scale of the weekly deterioration is comprehensive. Bitcoin's 14.5% decline and Ether's 17%+ drop rank among the sharpest weekly losses since the July 2024 selloff. Spot trading volume fell to $679 billion in April — the lowest monthly level since October 2023 — indicating a structural lack of demand rather than temporary volatility, according to CryptoQuant. The broader altcoin market suffered deep losses throughout the week, with Friday's session particularly brutal.
$1.2 billion in crypto positions were liquidated in the past 24 hours alone, with a 76% to 24% split between longs and shorts. Bitcoin liquidations led at $364 million, followed by Ether at $291 million and Zcash at $107 million.
Zcash crashes 30% on exploit disclosure — Hayes sells entire position
One of Friday's worst performers was Zcash, which tumbled more than 30% after a security researcher disclosed an exploit in its shielded pool that could have allowed the minting of unlimited ZEC tokens completely undetected. Shielded Labs published a detailed disclosure confirming the now-patched vulnerability — but the revelation that such a flaw existed for four years without detection shook confidence across the entire privacy coin sector.
Monero fell 12% and Dash dropped 9% in sympathy. The losses were compounded by BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes disclosing on X that his firm had sold its entire ZEC allocation — a high-profile institutional exit that accelerated the selling.
Cardano slumps as Hoskinson steps away
Cardano fell more than 10% after founder Charles Hoskinson announced he was "taking a break" following public warnings about ecosystem failures. ADA is now trading below $0.16 — a sharp decline that illustrates how founder-related sentiment shocks can overwhelm any amount of underlying technical progress. Hoskinson's departure announcement arrived at the worst possible moment for a token already under pressure from the broad market selloff.
Why it's happening: AI rotation, strategy sales, and macro
Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor attributed the week's crypto decline to capital rotation driven by a series of artificial intelligence IPOs in the US — consistent with the broader narrative of institutional capital flowing from digital assets into AI infrastructure at an accelerating pace. Google's $80 billion capital raise, Broadcom's initial disappointing chip forecast followed by broader AI sector volatility, and the continuing flood of money into AI stocks have all pulled institutional attention and capital away from crypto.
Friday's blowout payrolls report — 172,000 jobs added against an 85,000 forecast — added another layer of macro pressure by cementing bets on Federal Reserve rate hikes by December 2026. Treasury yields jumped, the dollar strengthened, and equity markets fell as rate expectations repriced sharply higher.
Derivatives: from mild improvement to clear deleveraging
The derivatives picture confirms that this week's selloff is structural rather than temporary. Bitcoin open interest dropped 15% to $17 billion, with funding rates flipping from positive to negative or flat across multiple venues. At Deribit, the annualized funding rate dropped to negative 15% — a notable reversal from the prior positive regime. The three-month annualized basis fell to 2.7% from 2.9% last week, confirming reduced institutional risk appetite.
Options positioning has turned unambiguously defensive. The put-to-call volume ratio has reached a 50-50 split over the past 24 hours, abandoning the prior call-heavy tilt. The one-week 25-delta skew more than doubled to 27% from 13% a week ago — a sharp escalation in demand for downside protection that signals professional traders are paying significant premiums to hedge against further declines. Front-end implied volatility has climbed to 47, confirming sustained fear in the options market.
AI tokens reverse, but oversold RSI offers a glimmer
AI tokens that had outperformed on Monday gave back their gains, with FET, NEAR, and TAO each falling 4% to 6% on Friday. The thematic rotation that briefly supported those tokens proved short-lived as the broader selling pressure overwhelmed sector-specific narratives.
The one reason for cautious optimism heading into the weekend: the average RSI across all crypto pairs has dropped into oversold territory according to CoinGlass data. Historical oversold readings at comparable levels — February 2026, November 2025, August 2024 — have preceded relief bounces. Whether this week's oversold extreme translates into a weekend recovery or simply marks another step in a deeper decline will depend primarily on how markets process Friday's hot payrolls report and whether Bitcoin can defend the $60,000 level that Monarq Asset Management's CIO Sam Gaer warned could trigger a decline to $45,000 if broken.
Ether's critical level: $1,420
Ether's approach to $1,420 deserves specific attention. That level marked the exact bottom of Ether's April 2025 selloff, from which it staged a four-month rally to record highs. It is therefore both a technical support level and a psychological anchor for longer-term holders who remember what followed the last time ETH traded here.
A sustained hold above $1,420 would keep Ether within its post-2022 recovery structure. A close below it would be a significant technical breakdown — bringing the 2022 bear market range, where Ether traded below $900, back into the conversation as a realistic scenario if macro conditions do not improve.
Anais
Weatherly