Selling pressure intensifies as bitcoin falls beneath $67,000 and ether follows lower.

Bitcoin Extends Losses Below $67K as Crypto Stocks Slide; Gold and Silver Advance

Bitcoin and ether remained under pressure over the past 24 hours, dragging down crypto-related equities, while precious metals rallied on shifting expectations for U.S. monetary policy.

Bitcoin declined 2.4% to trade near $66,900, and ether dropped 2.7%, falling back below $2,000. The broader CoinDesk 20 Index lost 3.7%, reflecting widespread weakness across large-cap digital assets.

The downturn weighed on publicly traded crypto firms. Coinbase shares fell about 4% in pre-market trading, while Bullish slipped 2.3%. Bitcoin treasury companies Strategy (MSTR) and Strive (ASST) each shed roughly 2.3%. Robinhood dropped 4.7% after reporting a 38% decline in fourth-quarter crypto revenue.

Meanwhile, safe-haven assets climbed. Gold gained around 0.9% to $5,070 per ounce, and silver surged more than 5%, following softer-than-expected U.S. retail sales data that pointed to slowing consumer demand.

The U.S. dollar weakened and Treasury yields moved lower as investors adjusted their outlook for Federal Reserve rate cuts. On prediction markets, the probability of a March cut rose from 7% at the start of the month to roughly 19% on Polymarket and 21% on Kalshi.

Derivatives Data Reflects Risk-Off Positioning

Futures markets suggest continued deleveraging. Bitcoin open interest has fallen to $15.6 billion, indicating traders are trimming exposure.

Funding rates have turned increasingly negative, particularly on Binance (-6%) and Bybit (-0.50%), while the three-month basis has compressed to 1.6%, signaling fading institutional appetite.

In options markets, the one-week 25-delta skew has climbed to 23%, highlighting elevated demand for downside protection. At the same time, calls account for 55% of positioning, suggesting some traders are attempting to position for a rebound.

Implied volatility across maturities remains relatively stable, leaving the term structure balanced between backwardation and contango — expensive short-term hedges paired with steadier long-term expectations.

According to Coinglass, total liquidations reached $297 million over the past 24 hours, with long positions accounting for 77% of the wipeout. Bitcoin saw $121 million in liquidations, ether $89 million, and other tokens $16 million. Binance’s liquidation heatmap identifies $66,100 as a key support level to watch if selling intensifies.

Spark Targets Institutional Lending Market

Amid the broader downturn, Spark — the onchain capital allocator incubated by Sky — introduced two new institutional lending products aimed at bridging the $33 billion offchain crypto credit market with decentralized finance.

Spark Prime enables institutions to trade on margin and settle off-exchange while using collateral across centralized and decentralized platforms. Spark Institutional Lending caters to firms requiring regulated custody, allowing them to borrow against offchain-held assets via integrations with custodians such as Anchorage Digital.

Spark manages over $9 billion in stablecoin liquidity across DeFi and reports $5.2 billion in total value locked, according to DefiLlama.

Its governance token, SPK, rose more than 2% in the past 24 hours, outperforming the broader market despite continued weakness in major cryptocurrencies.