Bitcoin, Ether Slide as Nasdaq Tech Selloff Triggers $717M in

Bitcoin dropped 2.5% to $62,300 and ether slid more than 4% on Tuesday, dragged lower by a renewed tech-stock rout after Nasdaq 100 futures cratered 2.5% since midnight. The selloff triggered $717 million in liquidations across the market, amplifying losses in altcoins like ethena (ENA) and hype (HYPE), which fell 5%-6%.

The Dollar Index climbed to 101.15, its highest level in more than a year, adding another headwind for risk assets. Patrick Munnelly, market strategy partner at TickMill, attributed the tech weakness to profit-taking and the threat of higher bond yields.

Why it matters

The cross-asset correlation is back on. Crypto is no longer trading as a detached macro hedge; it is repricing alongside Nasdaq megacaps as the DXY push forces a global risk-off. The derivatives tape confirms it is not just spot flow: SpaceX perpetual open interest surged 10% even as the contract dropped 15%, a textbook signal of fresh short-side leverage deploying into the move. XRP futures open interest climbed to 2.38 billion tokens at eight-month highs while price slid nearly 2% on the week, and the OI-adjusted 24-hour cumulative volume delta stayed negative for a second straight day, meaning market shorts are leading price, not passive limit bids.

BTC futures open interest has slipped to 720K BTC from 742K last week and a peak of 800K earlier this month, suggesting long exposure is being trimmed, not rebuilt. Ether OI has bounced from five-week lows to 14.13 million ETH but remains light versus the May 28 peak of 15.98 million, leaving positioning with room to reset further.

Market impact

Options markets are flashing a defensive posture. Put-call skews show traders still paying for downside protection, and the long-call structures built into Friday's quarterly expiry are now sitting underwater after spot collapsed through the quarter. Upswings in bitcoin's 30-day implied volatility index BVIV (back above 40%) and EVIV for ether are typical of bearish price trends, not base-building.

Privacy coins dash (DASH) and monero (XMR) bucked the move, losing under 1%, while zcash (ZEC) fell 4.2% alongside broader altcoins after an earlier AI-inspired exploit.