Just noticed: Bitcoin fell to $68,200 after the weekend and left a CME gap that everyone is now watching. The reason was pretty wild – geopolitical tensions disrupted the entire crypto market. Interestingly, Bitcoin is currently trading around $73,100 and has already recovered some ground.

The crazy part: Over $400 million in leveraged positions were liquidated within 24 hours, with over $280 million in long positions. That’s the highest value since late February – a sign of how hard the bulls have been hit. I see many traders who had to close their positions.

In altcoins, things are mixed. While the DeFi sector and many tokens are crashing, privacy coins like XMR, DASH, and NIGHT are showing relative strength – gaining 3 to 5 percent. BCH and LINK are also holding up better. The crypto market is reacting selectively to the volatility.

On the derivatives side, I see that volatility has increased – the BTC volatility index BVIV jumped to 60 percent. For Ether, it was even more extreme, with the EVIV reaching 84 percent. This means traders are heavily hedging with put options because they fear further correction. The demand for protection is clearly visible.

Also interesting: On decentralized exchanges like Hyperliquid, traditional commodities like Brent oil and gold are now being traded more actively than many crypto tokens. This shows how the crypto market is currently dominated by macro factors. The DeFi sector index is down 0.75 percent, while privacy tokens are resisting. I’m watching whether Bitcoin can hold the $70,000 mark or if we’ll go even lower – the CME gap is still open.