Altcoins Face 20% Declines as Crypto Market Dips in a Broad Selloff.

Bitcoin remained an outperformer but still saw a 5% drop over the past 24 hours, hovering just above $95,000.

The cryptocurrency market experienced a slow decline that began late in the weekend and intensified into the early U.S. hours on Monday, causing most of the sector to see significant losses.

As of the latest update, Bitcoin (BTC) had fallen to just over $95,000, marking a 5% decline in the past day, while Ether (ETH) saw a steeper drop of 10%, settling at $3,590. The CoinDesk 20 Index also dropped more than 8% during the same period, with Cardano (ADA), Avalanche (AVAX), and XRP (XRP) all experiencing roughly 20% declines.

Over the past 24 hours, more than $750 million in leveraged derivatives positions were liquidated across the crypto market, the majority of which were bullish bets. This liquidation event closely mirrors the August 5 crash and comes just after last Thursday’s volatile swing, when Bitcoin plummeted from over $100,000 to $90,000.

Market momentum appears to be waning, with declining exchange volumes and long-term holders taking profits, as noted by analytics firm 10x Research in a Monday report. “We expect this to be a brief consolidation phase before the bull market picks up momentum again,” wrote 10x Research founder Markus Thielen. “However, traders should focus on identifying which positions are performing well and which are underperforming as the market enters a phase where not all assets will continue to rise.”

Options traders are increasingly preparing for sideways price movement through the end of the year, taking profits on earlier bullish bets and possibly rolling positions into early next year. Digital asset hedge fund QCP remarked in their Monday report, “While we remain structurally bullish, spot prices are likely to stay in a range for the rest of the holiday season.”