Markets experienced a sharp repricing overnight as volatility surged across cryptocurrencies, precious metals, and foreign exchange. A wave of forced liquidations swept through crypto derivatives markets, while gold and silver suffered one of their steepest pullbacks in years.
At the same time, the U.S. dollar has slid to fresh multi-year lows, adding to uncertainty and amplifying risk-off behavior across asset classes. The synchronized move across markets reflects a fragile macro environment.
Crypto Markets Hit by $1.45B in Liquidations
Cryptocurrency markets saw intense selling pressure as leveraged long positions unwound at scale. CoinGlass data shows that over the past 24 hours, more than $1.45 billion in long and short positions were liquidated, affecting more than 205,000 traders across major exchanges. The largest single liquidation occurred on HTX in the BTC-USDT pair, with a position valued at $80.57 million forcibly closed.
Liquidations continued throughout Friday, with total liquidations reaching over $1.2 billion for the day so far. The imbalance between long and short liquidations underscores how heavily positioned markets had become following weeks of range-bound trading.
Bitcoin led the downturn. The asset fell to as low as $81,000 in early Friday trading before rebounding modestly to $83,000. Bitcoin has shed nearly $10,000 over the past 24 hours and is approaching its November lows, just below $81,000. The broader crypto market followed suit, with total market capitalization sliding and large-cap assets posting steep daily losses.
Ether traded down toward $2,700, while Solana declined from approximately $125 to near $116. Across the market, major cryptocurrencies fell between 7% and 9% in a single day, reflecting widespread deleveraging rather than isolated weakness.
Solana Activity Remains Resilient Despite Price Weakness
While prices moved lower, onchain activity on Solana told a more nuanced story. Solana continued to lead all layer-one and layer-two chains in 24-hour dApp revenue and DEX volume. Trading activity remained concentrated on Solana-based platforms, highlighting sustained user engagement even during market stress.
Speculative behavior has also started picking up steam recently, suggesting that risk appetite persists among retail traders despite broader market drawdowns. Increased memecoin issuance and trading volumes point to a renewed speculative cycle forming across the network, even as spot prices trend lower.
In contrast, institutional exposure to Solana showed signs of caution. Solana spot ETFs recorded $2.2 million in net outflows yesterday, led by $1.3 million in redemptions from Grayscale’s GSOL. Despite the daily outflows, total net inflows into Solana spot ETFs remain substantial at approximately $893 million, indicating that longer-term allocations have not reversed.
Precious Metals Suffer Sharp Reversal After Historic Rally
Precious metals experienced a violent reversal following an extended period of exceptional gains. Spot gold prices fell more than 16% from around $5,600 per ounce to near $4,700, while silver dropped a massive 37.5% from roughly $120 to $75.
The sell-off followed a historic rally that saw gold and silver deliver extraordinary returns throughout 2025. Gold surged approximately 65% last year, while silver posted gains of nearly 150%. Those advances carried into early 2026, with gold up 19% and silver up 45% year to date before this week’s decline.
Investors appear to have taken profits as momentum slowed and positioning became crowded. Despite the pullback, the underlying drivers that fueled the rally remain in place. Geopolitical risk, economic uncertainty, trade tensions, and a weakening U.S. dollar continue to support long-term demand for hard assets.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell added to the market debate by downplaying the macroeconomic signal from gold prices. Powell stated that the Fed does not draw significant conclusions from precious metals price action when assessing monetary policy, reinforcing the central bank’s focus on labor, inflation, and financial conditions rather than commodity markets.
Dollar Weakens to Its Lowest in Years
The U.S. dollar extended its decline, falling to its lowest level in four years. The greenback has now fallen roughly 10% over the past year.
President Donald Trump dismissed concerns about the currency’s weakness, calling the decline beneficial in public remarks in Iowa. His comments coincided with increased demand for traditional safe havens such as gold and the Swiss franc, even as precious metals prices corrected sharply.
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