Bitcoin came close to sinking below $74,000 on Wednesday as leading cryptocurrencies fell sharply and traders rushed to unwind risk. More than $450 million was liquidated from the cryptocurrency market in the past 24 hours, including $400 million in long positions, while Ethereum fought to defend the $2,000 support level and selling pressure intensified for XRP and Dogecoin.
The slide came even as stocks marched higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallying 182.60 points to a record close of 50,644.28. The S&P 500 rose 0.02% to 7,520.36 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.07% to close at 26,674.73, underscoring how sharply crypto moved against the broader market tone.
Wednesday’s washout also hit listed crypto-linked shares. Strategy Inc. closed down 3.58% and Bitmine Immersion Technologies Inc. fell 1.98% as the digital-asset slump deepened. The global cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $2.49 trillion, down 1.89% over the last 24 hours.
The pressure built on top of a market that was already vulnerable. Bitcoin’s open interest fell 0.89% over the last 24 hours, even after retail and whale derivatives traders turned bullish and built long positions in the token. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index showed “Extreme Fear,” a sign that sentiment had already turned defensive before the latest drop accelerated.
CryptoQuant described a “structurally fragile setup” for Bitcoin, pointing to weak spot demand and bullish derivatives demand. The firm said Binance funding rates had increased and that traders were positioning long through leverage, a combination that can leave the market exposed when momentum reverses. In that sense, Wednesday’s fall looked less like a surprise than the breaking point in a market that had been stretched thin.
Overnight geopolitics added another layer of unease. reported that the U.S. military carried out new strikes in Iran and targeted a military site and downed Iranian drones that threatened the Strait of Hormuz. Hours earlier, Donald Trump said the waterway would be “open to everybody” and that “nobody's going to control it.”
Ethereum’s weakness also drew fresh attention. Ali Martinez said the token’s Market Value to Realized Value ratio had dropped below the 0.8 band, with the coin trading at $1,868. He said that level has rarely been sustained for long and called the zone a high-probability macro accumulation window that can lay the groundwork for the next major bull market. For now, though, the message from the tape was simpler: crypto is still selling off even as everything else looks buoyant, and the market is paying for crowded leverage first.
