By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless otherwise noted)
Pricing uncertainty is back to haunt the markets, and it’s no surprise. Bitcoin traders are looking for downside protection.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled against emergency tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump in April of last year. Within hours, Trump had announced new tariffs, citing a law allowing an import levy of up to 15% for 150 days to address “international payment issues.”
This confirms that the president still considers “tariffs” to be the most beautiful word in the English dictionary. This also means that trading uncertainty is here to stay, posing a hurdle for risky assets including Bitcoin.
Bitcoin traders reacted accordingly. Since Friday, puts at strike prices of $58,000, $60,000 and $62,000 have seen the largest increases in open interest, or number of active contracts, on Deribit. This is a clear sign that traders are positioning themselves for a decline. A put option protects against price losses.
Bitcoin fell to a low of $64,481 early Monday after reaching around $66,000 over the weekend. This drop occurred amid reports of a whale, or large BTC holder, moving significant amounts of bitcoin to an exchange, possibly for sale. Since then, the price has climbed back to over $66,000.
Ether (ETh) also recovered from Asian session lows near $1,856, even as blockchain data pointed to faster selling by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
Trade tensions could dominate sentiment this week, with Nvidia’s earnings potentially increasing market volatility. Analysts were pinning their hopes on the potential stabilization of spot Bitcoin ETF flows to support the market.
“A stabilization of capital outflows would suggest that institutional sales are maturing. A continued contraction would strengthen the defensive regime,” Timothy Misir, head of research at BRN, said in an email.
“For now, liquidity defines the environment. Supply persists. Conviction is thin. The market is waiting for either macroeconomic relief or a re-emergence of structural demand,” he said.
In traditional markets, Goldman Sachs raised its forecast for Brent crude oil for the fourth quarter to $60 and for WTI to $56 a barrel, citing lower-than-expected OECD inventories. Crude prices have been supported recently due to fears of a full-blown military conflict between the United States and Iran. A sharp rise in oil prices could worsen inflation globally and weigh on risky assets. Stay vigilant!
Read more: For analysis of current altcoin and derivatives activity, see Crypto Markets Today
What to watch
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Cryptocurrency
- February 23: The Alchemy Chain testnet is scheduled to go live.
- Macro
- February 23, 8:00 a.m.: Fed Governor Christopher Waller delivers a speech on the economic outlook at the National Association for Business Economics.
- February 23, 10:00 a.m.: Dallas Fed US manufacturing index for February (previous -1.2)
- Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
Token Events
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Votes and calls on governance
- February 23: The DYdX Foundation will host its analyst conference call in February.
- February 23: Pudgy Penguins will host an Inner Igloo meetup on Discord.
- Uniswap DAO votes to enable protocol fees on all V3 pools and eight Layer 2 networks. Voting closes on February 23.
- ZKsync DAO votes to allocate $4.1 million in ZK tokens to the 2026 Audit Reimbursement Program (ZARP v2) to fund prospective protocol security audits and retroactively reimburse eligible costs for 2025. Voting closes on February 23.
- Unlocks
- Token Launches
Conferences
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
Market movements
- BTC is down 1.99% from 4 p.m. ET Friday at $66,466.38 (24 hours: -2.67%)
- ETH is down 2.75% at $1,920.06 (24 hours: -3.13%)
- CoinDesk 20 is down 2.7% at 1,913.13 (24 hours: -2.93%)
- Ether CESR composite staking rate is down 3 basis points to 2.76%
- BTC funding rate is -0.0047% (-5.1531% annualized) on Binance
- The DXY is down 0.14% at 97.66
- Gold futures are up 2.03% at $5,184.10
- Silver futures are up 5.41% at $86.79
- The Nikkei 225 closed down 1.12% at 56,825.70
- Hang Seng closed 2.53% higher at 27,081.91
- The FTSE was little changed at 10,682.09
- The Euro Stoxx 50 is down 0.07% at 6,127.32
- DJIA closed Friday up 0.47% at 49,625.97
- The S&P 500 closed up 0.69% at 6,909.51
- The Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.90% at 22,886.07
- The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed up 0.66% at 33,817.51
- The S&P 40 Latin America closed up 1.63% at 3,799.71
- The 10-year US Treasury yield is down 0.8 bps to 4.077%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures are down 0.25% at 6,905.75
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are down 0.41% at 24,965.50
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are down 0.25% at 49,551.00
Bitcoin Statistics
- BTC dominance: 58.75% (-0.44%)
- Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.02888 (-0.21%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,016 EH/s
- Hash price (spot): $29.02
- Total fees: 1.88 BTC / $127,386
- Open Interest on CME Futures: 119,015 BTC
- BTC valued in gold: 12.9 ounces.
- BTC vs. gold market capitalization: 4.44%
Technical analysis
- The chart shows weekly Bitcoin price fluctuations in candlestick form.
- The long lower wicks of recent candles suggest seller fatigue: Sellers attempted to push prices lower, but failed.
- This type of trend after a sell-off usually sets the stage for price rebounds.
Crypto Stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): Closed Friday at $171.35 (+3.26%), -1.60% at $168.60 in pre-market
- Circle Internet (CRCL): closed at $63.02 (+1.78%), -1.05% at $62.36
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $21.20 (-1.99%), -1.84% 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): close 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 Miners ETF (WGMI): Closed at $38.85 (-4.53%)
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $9.86 (-5.37%)
Crypto Cash Companies
- 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 Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.11 (+0.91%)
ETF Feed
Spot BTC ETF
- Daily net flows: $88.1 million
- Cumulative net flows: $53.99 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~1.26 million
ETH Spot ETF
- Daily net flows: $0 million
- Cumulative net flows: $11.55 billion
- Total ETH holdings ~5.66 million
Source: Farside Investors
