That growth in derivatives trading may result in more volatility, which could explain the dip.
The recent crypto market euphoria hit a speed bump on Wednesday, as top altcoins like Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and Dogecoin fell, with some showing sizable drops. And the broader market dive has resulted in a growing pile of long positions getting liquidated amid concerns about frothy conditions for traders.
Altcoins have been surging in July, with XRP hitting a new all-time high mark last week — breaking a seven-year record — while Ethereum and Solana reached six-month highs in recent days. The Binance-linked BNB just hit a new all-time high price of $808 earlier Wednesday, before the market began to turn.
But now most of the market is showing red over the past day, with XRP now the biggest loser in the top 10 coins, falling nearly 10% over the past day to a current price of $3.22. It remains up nearly 8% over the last week.
Meanwhile, Dogecoin has fallen nearly 9% to $0.241 and Solana has dipped 7% to $188. Ethereum’s 3% fall on the day to $3,586 is relatively modest by comparison, while Bitcoin hasn’t budged much at all, sliding just 1% to $117,810.
Myriad users don’t expect a quick rebound for Ethereum, either, giving ETH just a 20% chance of bouncing to above $4,000 by the end of July 25. (Disclosure: Myriad is a product of Decrypt’s parent company, Dastan.)
Ethereum, however, is leading the list of daily liquidations, showing just how much traders were betting on the price of ETH to continue rising after last week’s massive gains. More than $605 million worth of positions have been wiped out over the last day, per data from CoinGlass.
Over $129 million worth of Ethereum positions have been liquidated over the past 24 hours, led by longs at nearly $104 million. XRP is next on the list for liquidations at $63.4 million, followed by the usual leader, Bitcoin, at $62.5 million.
Is altcoin season over already, or just getting started? Ethereum, XRP, and other top cryptocurrencies had recently outgained Bitcoin — which itself surged to new all-time highs earlier this month — with Glassnode noting a $216 billion boost to the collective market cap of altcoins over the last two weeks, as of early Wednesday.
“This is one of the largest USD-denominated upswings in the aggregate altcoin market cap, which adds further evidence to the presence of an ongoing altseason impulse,” analysts wrote.
That buzz has led to a boost in derivatives market trading, with collective altcoin open interest surging from $26 billion to a new record of about $45 billion since the start of July — including new highs for Ethereum and XRP.
That kind of surge suggests a level of froth around the altcoin market and can lead to increased volatility, which could explain why the markets are seeing sudden swings in either direction.
“This rapid growth suggests an acceleration in speculative positioning and a rising degree of market froth,” Glassnode analysts wrote. “Elevated leverage can both magnify gains and exacerbate losses, introducing greater reflexivity and making the market more vulnerable to volatility shocks.”
We may be seeing one of those shocks in action Wednesday, given the sharp drops for altcoins that were recently very hot. But one crypto executive told Decrypt that he believes it won’t mark the end of the bull market.
“What we’re seeing right now is a little more complicated than ‘What goes up must come down,'” said Mike Cahill, CEO of blockchain infrastructure firm Douro Labs. “Of course, after Bitcoin’s newest all-time high, there’s definitely going to be a market correction as a result of profit-taking and increased selling pressure.”
“On top of that, stalled U.S.-China trade talks and new speculation around the Fed’s policy changes are definitely impacting the market,” he added. “Overall, what we’re seeing is a small dip; I expect the crypto bull market to continue strongly at the very least through the end of 2025.”
