A large bitcoin (BTC) options bet crossed the tape on Deribit as the first quarter drew to a close on Monday, revealing bearish sentiment from the trader behind the move.
The so-called block trade carried a premium of more than $1 million for 1,180 contracts of the $70,000 put option expiring April 25, according to data tracked by Amberdata.

Ripple Labs’ XRP price has been forming a potential reversal pattern since early December 2024, characterized by a head and shoulders (H&S) formation coupled with a bearish divergence of the weekly Relative Strength Index. In the past few days, the XRP price has been retesting a crucial support level around $2, which coincides with the possible neckline of the H&S pattern.

The Ethereum (ETH) market has led the wider altcoin industry in bearish sentiment in the recent past. The large-cap altcoin, with a fully diluted valuation of about $225 billion and a 24-hour average trading volume of about $41 billion, closed last week below a crucial support range between $2.1k and $2.2k.

Despite the Trump administration announcing the strategic Bitcoin and crypto reserve, which was highly anticipated, the ongoing tariff trade wars have changed the entire market dynamics. Consequently, on-chain data shows institutional investors have dramatically reduced their appetite for crypto assets, led by the U.S. spot BTC ETFs which have lost over $4.3 billion in the past two months.

Donald Trump Donald Trump is an American former president politician, businessman, and media personality, who served as the 45th president of the U.S. between 2017 to 2021. Trump earned a Bachelor of science in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. Trump won the 2016 presidential election as the Republican Party nominee against Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton while losing the popular vote. As president, Trump ordered a travel ban on citizens from several Muslim-majority countries, diverted military funding toward building a wall on the U.S.–Mexico border, and implemen

Still, analysts at investment firm Bernstein think Bitcoin is only going up: They said in a Monday report that investors should be prepared for a further rally in the asset and equities related to it, as "the confluence of adoption by banks, institutional investors, corporates, and eventually sovereigns" pushes the price of the coin higher.

Last week, the crypto ETFs lost money after the Federal Reserve hinted that it wasn't in a hurry to cut interest rates. When new figures drop next week, we'll again lackluster numbers for the products as American investors take a more cautious approach to speculating with inflation looking like it it's here to stay—for now.

Investors continued to pull cash out of the new American exchange-traded products, Farside Investors data shows, with money exiting the new funds every day of this week after U.S. markets were closed Monday. Nearly $365 million left the 10 funds on Thursday alone, marking the week's worst day for flows. The other three days saw between $60-$65 million each in outflows.

The special prosecutor who led a years-long investigation into Joe Biden's son, Hunter, has criticised the president for making "baseless accusations" about the case and defended his investigation in a final report.
In the report, released Monday, David Weiss called his prosecution of the president's son on gun and tax crimes "impartial" and "not partisan politics".

The Eaton Fire, the second-largest of the series of blazes that broke out across the city last week, has burned more than 14,000 acres, and is 33% contained, authorities said.
There had been "very little fire growth" of the Palisades blaze on Monday, said Jim Hudson, deputy chief of CalFire.

The arson is not linked to any of the major fires but was allegedly started in a local park.
Law enforcement also warned against price gouging, internet scams, and flying drones, which can interfere with firefighting aircraft.
They said a number of ongoing investigations means more charges could be filed.
Blake Chow, the assistant chief of the Los Angeles Police Department's office of special operations, issued a stern warning to looters: "You're not going to get away with it."

It is nice seeing people coming together and volunteering the way that they are."
Fardad Khayami, a 24-year-old restaurant owner in Pacific Palisades, was delivering hundreds of meals to people affected by the fires.
He told BBC Newsday: "If you look, outside, it seems to offer a normal city where we are. But if you drive five minutes to the west, it seems like a different world."

The Eaton Fire, the second-largest of the series of blazes that broke out across the city last week, has burned more than 14,000 acres, and is 33% contained, authorities said.
There had been "very little fire growth" of the Palisades blaze on Monday, said Jim Hudson, deputy chief of CalFire.

Three fires continue to blaze. The largest, the Palisades Fire, has burned more than 23,000 acres and remained at 14% contained as of Monday evening.
LA Mayor Karen Bass said "urgent preparations" are being made in advance of near hurricane-force winds predicted to peak on Tuesday.
At least 24 people have died in the fires and 23 others are missing in the Eaton and Palisades fire zones.

CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of the Bullish group, which owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish group equity-based compensation. Bullish was incubated by technology investor Block.one.

BTC, which traded just below $101,000 through European afternoon hours, dipped to $97,800 following the data, giving up yesterday's gains and down 4% over the past 24 hours. Altcoin majors declined even more with Ethereum's ether (ETH) and Solana's SOL losing 6%-7%, while Avalanche's AVAX and Chainlink's LINK tumbled 8%-9%.

While neither report generally tends to be much of a market mover, combined they further shook up an already jittery bond market, sending the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield higher by another five basis points to 4.68% and within a few ticks of multi-year highs. The move took U.S. stocks lower, with the Nasdaq now off by more than 1% in late morning action and the S&P 500 lower by 0.4%.

Released at the same time, the ISM Services Purchasing Managers Index, a monthly gauge of the level of economic activity in the services sector, came in at 54.1 for December, overshooting expectations for 53.3 and nicely ahead of November's 52.1. The Prices Paid subindex came in red-hot at 64.4, compared to the expected 57.5 and 58.2 in the previous month.

This close-up study of the Sun allows Parker Solar Probe to take measurements that help scientists better understand how material in this region gets heated to millions of degrees, trace the origin of the solar wind (a continuous flow of material escaping the Sun), and discover how energetic particles are accelerated to near light speed," the agency said.