**A Challenging Tuesday for the Crypto Markets**
The crypto markets are experiencing a tough day, with sentiment plunging into “extreme fear” as Bitcoin dipped to a low of $86,887, marking its lowest point since mid-November. Overall, the crypto market has seen a decline of over 10% in the past 24 hours, with notable coins like Solana, Ripple’s XRP, and Dogecoin facing even steeper losses during this period.
**Crypto Trader Sentiment Drops to ‘Extreme Fear’**
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which gauges market sentiment, recorded a score of 25 on February 25, indicating “extreme fear.” This represents a significant 24-point drop from the previous day, which had shown a “neutral” sentiment, highlighting one of the sharpest declines since September. The swift downturn reflects a rapid shift towards a more bearish outlook. Contributing factors to this panic include the continuation of Monday’s market sell-off into Tuesday and substantial outflows from U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Currently, Bitcoin is down 7.8%, trading at $87,939, while Ethereum has fallen 11.3% to $2,377, according to CoinGecko data. Ripple’s XRP is the biggest loser among the top 10 coins, with a 15.6% drop over the last day and a 19.7% decline over the week, bringing its price to around $2.08. Other major coins are also struggling, with Solana’s SOL down approximately 13.7% at $135.52, meme coin Dogecoin falling about 13% to $0.1997, and Cardano also down 13% at a current price of $0.6345.
**$1.5 Billion Crypto Liquidation Storm**
In the midst of Tuesday’s widespread price declines, liquidations have surged to $1.48 billion in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinGlass. Ethereum and Bitcoin lead the way with approximately $641 million and $302 million in liquidations, respectively. Most of these liquidations involve traders who were betting on price increases. This current pullback resembles the market patterns seen in 2017, when Bitcoin experienced five separate 28% corrections, each lasting two to three months, as noted by Global Macro Investor founder and CEO Raoul Pal in a February 25 post on the X platform. The recent downturn in the crypto market follows another wave of selling in U.S. Bitcoin ETFs, with around $516 million in investor funds exiting these products on February 24 alone. The BTC ETFs have now experienced six consecutive days of outflows, according to data from Farside Investors. Additionally, the crypto industry was recently shaken by the largest hack in its history on February 21, when Bybit lost nearly $1.5 billion.
