By Omkar Godbole (All times Eastern unless otherwise noted)
Tariff uncertainty plagues markets again, no surprise for Bitcoin Traders are looking for downside protection.
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that emergency tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump since April last year were invalid. Within hours, Trump announced the new tariffs, citing a law that allows import duties of up to 15% to be imposed within 150 days to address “international payment issues.”
This confirms that the president still considers “tariff” the most beautiful word in the English dictionary. This also means that trade-related uncertainty will persist, creating headwinds for risk assets including Bitcoin.
Bitcoin traders reacted accordingly. Put options with strike prices of $58,000, $60,000, and $62,000 have seen the largest increase in open interest, or active contracts, on Deribit since Friday. This is a clear sign that traders are preparing for a dip. Put options protect against price loss.
Bitcoin fell to a low of $64,481 early Monday after fluctuating around $66,000 over the weekend. Bitcoin’s decline comes amid reports that whales or large Bitcoin holders are moving large amounts of Bitcoin to exchanges, possibly with the intention of selling. The price has since recovered to over $66,000.
Ethereum (ETH) also rebounded from Asia session lows near $1,856, despite blockchain data showing Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s sales accelerating.
Trade tensions are likely to dominate sentiment this week, while Nvidia’s earnings could add to market volatility. Analysts are hopeful that Bitcoin ETF spot flows may stabilize to support the market.
“Flatlining outflows suggest institutional selling is maturing. Continued contraction will strengthen defense mechanisms,” Timothy Misir, BRN’s director of research, said in an email.
“Currently, liquidity determines the environment. Supply persists. Confidence is weak. The market is waiting for macro easing or structural demand to re-emerge,” he said.
In traditional markets, Goldman Sachs raised its fourth-quarter Brent crude forecast to $60 a barrel and WTI crude oil forecast to $56 a barrel, citing lower than expected OECD inventories. Crude oil prices have been rising recently amid fears of an all-out military conflict between the United States and Iran. A sharp rise in oil prices could fuel global inflation and put pressure on risk assets. Stay alert!
Read more: For analysis of today’s altcoin and derivatives activity, see Today’s Cryptocurrency Market
What to see
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- cryptocurrency
- February 23: Alchemy Chain testnet is scheduled to go online.
- Macro
- February 23, 8:00 a.m.: Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller speaks on the economic outlook at the National Association for Business Economics.
- February 23, 10:00 am: Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index in February (previous value -1.2)
- income (Estimate based on FactSet data)
Token event
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Governance votes and calls
- February 23: The DYdX Foundation held a February analyst conference call.
- February 23rd: Pudgy Penguins will host an Inner Igloo session on Discord.
- The Uniswap DAO is voting to enable protocol fees across all V3 pools and 8 layer 2 networks. Voting ends on February 23rd.
- The ZKsync DAO is voting to allocate $4.1 million in ZK tokens for the 2026 Audit Reimbursement Program (ZARP v2) to fund prospective protocol security audits and retroactively reimburse eligible 2025 costs. Voting ends on February 23rd.
- Unlock
- Token issuance
Meeting
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
market trend
- BTC is down 1.99% since 4pm ET on Friday to $66,466.38 (24 hours: -2.67%)
- ETH fell 2.75% to $1,920.06 (24 hours: -3.13%)
- CoinDesk 20 fell 2.7% to 1,913.13 (24 hours: -2.93%)
- The comprehensive pledge rate of Ethereum CESR dropped by 3 basis points to 2.76%
- The BTC financing interest rate on Binance is -0.0047% (annualized -5.1531%)
- DXY fell 0.14% to 97.66
- Gold futures rose 2.03% to $5,184.10
- Silver futures rose 5.41% to $86.79
- The Nikkei 225 closed down 1.12% at 56,825.70 points
- The Hang Seng Index closed up 2.53% to 27,081.91 points
- The FTSE was little changed at 10,682.09
- The Stoxx Europe 50 index fell 0.07% to 6,127.32
- The Dow closed up 0.47% on Friday at 49,625.97 points
- The S&P 500 closed up 0.69% at 6,909.51 points
- The Nasdaq Composite Index closed up 0.90% at 22,886.07 points
- The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed up 0.66% at 33,817.51 points
- The S&P 40 Latin America Index closed up 1.63% at 3,799.71 points
- The U.S. 10-year Treasury bond rate fell 0.8 basis points to 4.077%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures fell 0.25% to 6,905.75
- E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.41% to 24,965.50
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 0.25% to 49,551.00
Bitcoin Statistics
- Bitcoin Dominance: 58.75% (-0.44%)
- Ethereum-Bitcoin ratio: 0.02888 (-0.21%)
- Hash rate (seven-day moving average): 1,016 EH/s
- Hash price (spot): $29.02
- Total fee: 1.88 BTC / $127,386
- CME Futures Open Interest: 119,015 BTC
- BTC in gold: 12.9 ounces.
- Bitcoin and gold market capitalization: 4.44%
technical analysis
- This chart shows Bitcoin’s weekly price fluctuations in the form of candlesticks.
- The longer lower shadow of the recent candle suggests seller fatigue: sellers tried to push the price down, but failed.
- This pattern after a significant sell-off often sets the stage for a price rebound.
crypto stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): Closed Friday pre-market at $171.35 (+3.26%), -1.60% at $168.60
- Circle Internet (CRCL): Closed at $63.02 (+1.78%), -1.05% at $62.36
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): -1.99% to close at $21.20, -1.84% to close at $20.81
- Bullish (BLSH): Closed at $31.77 (-1.85%), -0.66% at $31.56
- MARA Holdings (MARA): Closed at $7.97 (+0.13%), -1.63% at $7.84
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): Closed at $15.68 (-3.33%), -1.66% at $15.42
- Core Scientific (CORZ): Closed at $17.30 (-3.78%)
- CleanSpark (CLSK): Closed at $9.65 (-1.73%), -1.45% at $9.51
- CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miner ETF (WGMI): Closed at $38.85 (-4.53%)
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): Closed at $9.86 (-5.37%)
Cryptocurrency Treasury Corporation
- Strategy (MSTR): Closed at $131.05 (+1.24%), -1.55% at $129.02
- Strive (ASST): Closed at $8.15 (+0.37%), -2.09% at $7.98
- SharpLink Gaming (SBET): Closed at $6.72 (-1.18%), -2.53% at $6.55
- Upexi (UPXI): Closed at $0.62 (-7.35%), +4.53% at $0.65
- Lite Strategies (LITS): Closed at $1.11 (+0.91%)
ETF flows
Spot BTC ETF
- Daily net traffic: $88.1 million
- Cumulative net flow: $53.99 billion
- Total BTC holdings are approximately 1.26 million
Spot ETH ETF
- Daily net traffic: $0 million
- Cumulative net flows: $11.55 billion
- The total holdings of ETH are approximately 5.66 million
Source: Farside Investors
