Crypto Markets Decline as Bitcoin Reverses from Recent Highs

Crypto markets have halted their steady climb, with many large-cap crypto assets retracing over the past 24 hours and total market capitalization falling below $4.3 trillion this morning. Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $122,674, down 1.8% on the day and about 3% from its recent all-time high above $126,000.

Despite the dip, Bitcoin remains up over 4% so far in October, historically one of its most bullish months, Iliya Kalchev, Nexo’s dispatch analyst, pointed out in commentary to The Defiant, adding:

“ETF inflows continue to anchor the move: on Tuesday alone, spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $875 million, extending total inflows to over $60 billion since launch. That momentum underscores persistent institutional appetite even amid short-term volatility.”

Ethereum (ETH) is showing the biggest losses on the day among the top-20 assets by market cap, down over 2% to $4,455 today.

All of the top-10 assets are flat or in the red today, with the exception of BNB, which is up 1.5% today and continues its extended rally, holding onto its spot as the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, reaching a new all-time high above $1,330 just yesterday.

Meanwhile, XRP is down about 1.2% to $2.87, with analysts at Santiment saying the token is seeing its “highest level of retail FUD since Trump’s tariffs were announced six months ago.” Solana (SOL) is also down 0.9% to $222, and TRON is down 1.4% over the past 24 hours.

Top Gainers and Losers

Within the top-100 assets by market cap, Zcash (ZEC) and Mantle (MNT) posted the biggest daily gains. ZEC is up over 20% today, continuing its sharp rally over the past week, as investor attention returns to privacy tokens.

MNT is up nearly 10%, reaching a new all-time high this morning, after it rallied earlier this week on the launch of Mantle-powered crypto app UR.

Meanwhile, today’s biggest losers among the top-100 are pumpfun’s PUMP and stablecoin blockchain Plasma’s XPL, which are both down over 7%.

Despite the recent decline across crypto markets, analysts at Glassnode noted in an X post on Oct. 7 that with Bitcoin hovering above $117,000, over 95% of the circulating supply is still in profit.

“This is a hallmark of Euphoria phases, where widespread profitability often fuels accelerated profit-taking and rising market risk,” the analysts added.

Analysts at Galaxy Digital noted in a recent newsletter that they remain “optimistic heading into October,” adding that on the macro side, the prospect of further tariffs “raises the risk of a weaker dollar, which historically has supported flows into BTC as a hedge.”

Liquidations, ETFs, and Macro

In the past 24 hours, over $624 million in leveraged positions were liquidated, according to Coinglass. ETH led the wipeout with over $170 million liquidated, followed by BTC at $153 million and other altcoins totaling more than $67 million.

On Tuesday, Oct. 7, spot ETH ETFs saw over $420.8 million in net inflows, the largest daily inflow since Sept. 29, according to SoSoValue. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded over $875.61 million in net inflows yesterday, slightly below Monday’s total, which marked the biggest daily inflow of the year so far.

On the macroeconomic front, attention is now turning to the University of Michigan’s preliminary October consumer sentiment and one-year inflation expectations data, due this Friday, Oct. 10, which will serve as one of the few timely reads on consumer mood and inflation trends.

Data from Carlyle, an investment firm that compiles private labor-market indicators during government data outages, suggests that U.S. payroll growth slowed sharply in September, rising by only about 17,000 jobs, well below market expectations, Reuters reported yesterday.

At the same time, the New York Fed’s latest Survey of Consumer Expectations showed households anticipating higher unemployment over the next year and raising their one-year inflation outlook to 3.4% in September, up from 3.2% in August.