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- Bitcoin jumped +$3,000 in one hour, reclaimed $90,000, then flipped to $86,000 after $120M in shorts and $200M in longs were liquidated, creating a $140B market-cap swing in under two hours.
- Metals ripped higher, with silver up 5% to a new record above $66, while gold and copper each gained more than 1%.
- U.S. stocks pulled back as money rotated out of tech again: S&P 500 −0.7%, Nasdaq −1%, Dow −83 points (−0.2%).
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More than two months after breaking above $126,000, Bitcoin has dropped almost 30 percent and is struggling to find a floor. One of the main drivers is selling from investors who usually never sell.
New on-chain data shows older coins moving at some of the fastest rates seen in years at the exact moment the market’s ability to absorb that supply is fading.
A report from K33 Research shows that Bitcoin untouched for at least two years has fallen by 1.6 million coins since early 2023. That is about $140 billion worth of supply re-entering the market.
In 2025 alone almost $300 billion in coins that had been dormant for more than a year has returned to circulation. CryptoQuant said the past thirty days delivered one of the heaviest distribution waves from long-term holders in over five years.
For most of the past year that selling met strong demand from new ETFs and crypto investment firms. That demand has now dried up. ETF flows have turned negative.
Derivatives activity has cooled. Retail participation has thinned. The same supply that once found eager buyers is landing on a softer market with fewer active traders.
Pressure intensified after October 10 when Bitcoin absorbed $19 billion in liquidations, and it was the largest single-day leverage wipeout in the history of crypto. Traders have stepped back from derivatives markets since then and there are still no convincing signs of a rebound.
President Donald Trump escalated pressure on Nicolas Maduro’s government on Tuesday by ordering a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, directly targeting the country’s biggest remaining source of revenue.
No one knows yet how Trump plans to enforce the order or whether he’ll lean on the U.S. Coast Guard, the same way he did last week.
What is clear is that Washington has already moved thousands of troops and nearly a dozen warships, including an aircraft carrier, into the region as tensions rise.
Oil prices reacted immediately in Asian trading on Wednesday. Brent crude climbed 70 cents (+1.2%) to $59.62, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate gained 73 cents (+1.3%) to $56.00.
U.S. crude futures traded above 1% higher at $55.96 after the announcement, rebounding from Tuesday’s close at $55.27, the lowest since February 2021.
Traders said the move reflects expectations of tighter supply if Venezuela’s exports are disrupted, but the market is still waiting to see how far the blockade extends and whether it could eventually reach non-sanctioned vessels as well.
President Donald Trump used a rare primetime address on Wednesday night to announce that more than 1,450,000 U.S. military members will receive a $1,776 “warrior dividend” before Christmas.
Trump said the payout was made possible by tariffs and what he called the recently passed “One Big Beautiful Bill,” telling viewers from the White House Diplomatic Reception Room that “the checks are already in the mail.”
Trump opened the speech by taking aim at former President Joe Biden, saying he “inherited a mess” when he returned to office in January and insisted he is “fixing it.”
He pointed to the administration’s push to tighten the Southern border, bring down living costs, and reassert U.S. strength abroad.
Trump closed with his usual characteristic framing of the country’s trajectory, saying, “Our country was ready to fail, totally fail. Now we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world.”
Japanese tech names cracked on Thursday as the same AI-infrastructure worries hammering Wall Street spilled straight into Asia.
The Nikkei 225 led losses across the region, dropping 1.23%, with SoftBank Group Corp taking the hardest hit. SoftBank fell as much as 7.25% early in the session before trimming part of the damage and trading about 3% lower later on.
The move lines up with the pressure that slammed the Nasdaq Composite, which sank 1.81% overnight after sharp declines in Oracle, Broadcom, Nvidia, and a bunch of other AI-linked names.
U.S. futures were quieter in comparison. Contracts tied to the broad market ticked up 0.1%, Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.2%, and Dow futures slipped 8 points, showing a market still trying to find its footing after yesterday’s unwind.
One of the few bright spots came from Micron Technology, which popped more than 7% in extended trading after beating Wall Street expectations on revenue and earnings for its fiscal first quarter and issuing an upbeat forecast for the current period.
Silver just blew through $66.50 per ounce and is now up 130% on the year, and the mood across global markets is getting jumpier by the hour.
Energy and metals kept feeding the tension. Oil regained some of what it lost earlier in the week, with U.S. crude settling at $55.94 (+1.21%) and Brent at $59.68 (+1.29%) after Trump’s blockade order raised supply concerns.
Precious metals stayed bid, with spot silver up 4.2% to $66.46, spot gold up 0.94% to $4,344.09, and U.S. gold futures up 1.09% to $4,351.40 as investors rotated into safer trades.
Tension spiked last night after President Trump ordered a “complete blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers moving in and out of Venezuela.
That order hit just hours after Trump said he’d deliver an address to the nation tonight at 9 PM EST, which is fueling the rumor mill even though nothing about the topic has been confirmed.
Oil responded fast. Prices jumped +3%, natural gas surged +6%, and stocks slid as traders braced for more geopolitical shock.
The Dow fell 228.29 points (−0.47%) to 47,885.97, the S&P 500 dropped 78.83 points (−1.16%) to 6,721.43, and the Nasdaq sank 418.14 points (−1.81%) to 22,693.32. Globally, the MSCI world index slipped 0.81% to 994.69, while Europe’s STOXX 600 ended the day basically flat.
Investors also pushed Treasury yields higher ahead of Thursday’s inflation reading, still dealing with messy, delayed data after the 43-day federal shutdown. The 10-year rose to 4.157%, the 30-year ticked up to 4.8293%, and the 2-year moved to 3.489%.
Currencies reacted in their own way. Sterling dropped 0.36% to $1.3372 after a surprise dip in UK inflation boosted expectations for a Bank of England rate cut.
The dollar index climbed 0.2% to 98.41, the euro slipped to $1.1739, and the yen weakened to 155.74 as traders priced in a potential Bank of Japan hike on Friday.
Bitcoin just went through one of those moves that makes everyone stop what they’re doing. It ripped +$3,000 in a single hour, clawed back $90,000, and instantly blew out $120 million in levered shorts.
Minutes later the entire thing flipped on its head, with another $200 million in levered longs getting liquidated as the price dumped to $86,000. That’s a $140 billion market-cap swing in under two hours, and traders are already calling the leverage situation a joke at this point.
The rest of the market wasn’t exactly calm either. Metals kept running hot, with silver jumping 5% to a fresh record above $66 per ounce, while gold and copper each added more than 1%.
Stocks pulled back again as money rotated out of tech for the second week in a row: the S&P 500 slipped 0.7%, the Nasdaq dropped 1%, and the Dow fell 83 points, or 0.2%.
The pressure stayed concentrated in the usual names, with Oracle down more than 4%, Broadcom down more than 5%, and Nvidia off roughly 3%. And according to Bank of America, hedge funds were the biggest net sellers last week, the bank said:
“Hedge fund clients were the biggest net sellers last week based on combined stock + ETF flows.”
Institutional clients bought for the fourth straight week, while private clients kept dumping stocks after turning bearish in early November.
What to know
Bitcoin ripped +$3,000 in one hour, smashed back through $90,000, and wiped out $120 million in levered shorts like they were tissue paper.
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