A burst of stop-loss selling knocked bitcoin to $81,000 early Tuesday, dragging it back to its 50-day moving average before buyers lifted it to about $83,700.
Stop-loss orders are automatic sell instructions traders set to cap their losses, and a cluster of them firing at once can push the price down quickly. The 50-day moving average, bitcoin’s average closing price over the past 50 days, is a level traders watch for the medium-term trend. Buyers defended it on Tuesday, as they did on Thursday when bitcoin bottomed near $80,400.
The rebound shows “just how easily it can rise after long positions have been liquidated,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at FxPro.
Kuptsikevich said bitcoin could move quickly to $85,000 and retest $87,000, the top of the range it traded in last week, if Tuesday’s drop proves to be a healthy correction. He added that the speed of the reversal may point to a broader return of appetite for risk, though he wants to see that confirmed in other markets.
Bitcoin swung through a $3,000 range over the past 24 hours. It fell to about $81,000 in early Asian trading, then ripped back above $84,000 and traded near $83,500 early Tuesday.
Altcoins didn’t bounce back as hard. ZEC was the laggard, down nearly 8% to about $1,210, and HYPE fell nearly 6% to about $82. SOL and DOGE each dropped 4%, and XRP lost about 3% to $1.36. Ether and BNB slipped between 1% and 2%, according to CoinDesk data.
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which tracks market sentiment, fell to 57. That’s still in “greed” territory, but it’s the lowest reading since Sept. 18.
The selloff in chipmakers ran for another day. Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.5%, and an exchange-traded fund tracking chip stocks headed for a sixth straight daily loss as traders questioned whether the pace of AI spending can last amid safety concerns and signs of funding strain. JPMorgan dropped more than 2% in early trading after its results opened the U.S. earnings season. Europe’s Stoxx 600 rose 0.4%, helped by falling oil prices and bond yields.
U.S. inflation data on Thursday is the next big test for both markets.
Diversified RWA stablecoins sustain 5-7% yield from real credit as crypto funding compresses to ~4%. GENIUS pushes yield off-chain; TAM grows to $4B in 3 years.
