Crypto Fades Again: BTC Drops, Altcoins Follow
Bitcoin weakened on Thursday (February 26th), dragged down by a wave of risk-off on Wall Street that once again pressured speculative assets, including cryptocurrencies. This decline followed a strong session on Wednesday, when Bitcoin rallied more than 6%, driven by discount buying and improved market sentiment.
The sharp recovery was also triggered by the mass liquidation of overcrowded short positions. The sudden price surge forced short traders to force a short squeeze, accelerating the intraday rally. Crypto aggregator Coinglass data recorded approximately $468.7 million in short positions liquidated in the past 24 hours—showing the sheer number of trapped bearish positions.
However, on Thursday, the trend reversed. Bitcoin fell about 2% to $67,573.6 as of 4:50 PM ET (9:50 PM GMT), as the market returned to the defensive after the tech stock rally failed to continue. Wall Street weakened as Nvidia's strong earnings report failed to lift its stock or broader tech sentiment, fueling investor caution about high valuations and AI-focused spending.
Bitcoin's strong rally on Wednesday was also seen as a technical rebound from a deeply depressed position—Bitcoin is still reportedly down nearly 50% from its October high. Despite some buying from corporations like Strategy, the market deemed this insufficient to dispel fears of a deeper correction. Even after this week's rebound, the CoinMarketCap Fear & Greed Index remained in the "extreme fear" zone on Thursday.
Pressure also spread to other major cryptocurrencies. Ether fell 3.1% to $2,033.86, while XRP slumped 5.4% to $1.3964. Solana and Cardano fell 4.2% and 7.8%, respectively, while BNB fell 1.8%.
In the meme coin segment, the decline was even sharper: Dogecoin fell around 8%, while the $TRUMP token fell 4%. Overall, this movement confirms that the crypto market remains highly sensitive to changes in Wall Street's mood—when risk-off occurs, risk assets usually immediately follow suit.
Source: Newsmaker.id
