Today in Crypto: Altcoins Slide as Market Remains Cautious

Crypto Markets Remain Weak as Bitcoin Retraces Gains, Altcoins Fall Further

Crypto markets struggled on Tuesday, with Bitcoin retracing last week’s gains and altcoins extending losses amid persistent investor caution.

Bitcoin traded near $87,000, down from last week’s high of $92,350, as hopes for a December “Santa rally” failed to materialize. The market remains in “extreme fear” following Monday’s sell-off, which dented confidence across the sector.

Altcoins faced heavier losses, with several tokens dropping more than 5% over 24 hours, led by privacy coins. Bitcoin has now given up almost all of its Nov. 21–28 rally, underperforming U.S. equities, as the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 6.6% during the same period.

Capital continues to flow out of major token futures, including BTC, ETH, XRP, and SOL. Open interest in futures tied to these tokens fell by up to 6% in the past 24 hours, reflecting cautious sentiment after the October 8 crash and auto-deleveraging losses. The 90-day annualized basis for Bitcoin has dropped to cycle lows of 4–5%, with Ether’s basis near 3–4%. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility index (BVIV) is rising relative to Wall Street’s VIX, signaling growing uncertainty. The ETH-BTC volatility spread narrowed to 21.50, the lowest since May 8, indicating expectations of continued turbulence for Bitcoin.

Options activity shows sustained put skew in BTC and ETH, with block trades favoring put spreads and calendar call diagonal spreads for Bitcoin, and risk reversals and put spreads for Ether.

Among altcoins, ETH and XRP fell around 0.6% over 24 hours, while Bitcoin gained 0.75%. Privacy coins led losses: Zcash (ZEC) dropped 8%, Monero (XMR) and Dash (DASH) fell 5–6%, suggesting the privacy coin rally may have been short-lived.

CoinMarketCap’s “altcoin season” indicator remains low at 24/100, highlighting investor focus on Bitcoin and select yield-generating DeFi tokens. SKY (formerly MKR) rose 6.7% after announcing token buybacks, boosted by growing interest in its associated stablecoin USDS (formerly DAI), which now has a $9.5 billion market cap and offers 4.5% staking yield.