Crypto Majors Slide as Much as 14% in 24 Hours Amid Bearish Sentiment

Solana's SOL fell 14% — bringing 7-day losses to over 20% — while dogecoin (DOGE), xrp (XRP) and ether (ETH) fell more than 8%

Cryptocurrency prices fell further on Tuesday, extending losses from the previous session, as a sell-off in major coins continued amid bearish sentiment and a lack of clear market drivers.

Solana’s SOL token led the declines, falling 14% over the past 24 hours. The losses brought SOL’s decline over the past seven days to over 20%.

Dogecoin (DOGE), XRP (XRP) and ether (ETH) fell more than 8% each. Bitcoin dropped below the $92,000 level for the first time since late November, threatening a potential downside break of the multi-week consolidation between $90,000 and $110,000.

The broader crypto market capitalization fell 6.6%, while the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index, which tracks the 20 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, slid more than 7%.

Traders said the current bearish sentiment could be overblown, and that macroeconomic decisions were key to support market growth.

“Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana shouldn’t be trading this far below their all time highs,” Jeff Mei, COO at crypto exchange BTSE, said in a Telegram message. “On the U.S. side, inflation concerns and a pause in Fed rate cuts have kept markets down, but this could change as weak economic data released last week could spur Fed officials to take further action.”

Augustine Fan, head of insights at SignalPlus, mirrored the sentiment.

“The ‘slowdown’ narrative will likely dominate the narrative in the near term, with stocks and bonds trading back in positive tandem with correlation nearing the highs of the past 12 months,” Fan said.

According to Fan, the "bad data is now good" once again, as markets refocus their attention on Fed eases, which could provide tailwinds to both gold and BTC in the near future.

Data released earlier this month showed the widely-watched Consumer Price Index (CPI) surged 0.5% month-over-month in January, much more than the expected 0.3% gain. The reading sent investors preferring cash positions or risk-off bets until clear signs of a government intervention to boost the economy.

The U.S. CPI measures the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services. Changes in CPI readings tend to impact bitcoin, and the broader crypto market, as investors view the asset class as a hedge against inflation.