Ether falls harder than Bitcoin in a market-wide risk-off move, while Aave bucks the selloff on V4 and Grayscale tailwinds; total DeFi value drops to about $69 billion
Bitcoin slid below $60,000 and Ether fell harder still on Wednesday, as a selloff in AI and semiconductor stocks and rising bets on a Federal Reserve rate hike pushed investors out of risk assets across the board.
Bitcoin dropped about 4% over the prior 24 hours, slipping under the $60,000 level for the first time in roughly two weeks, while Ether fell about 5%, according to data from CoinGecko. The broad crypto market followed equities lower: total value locked in DeFi protocols fell to about $69.3 billion from roughly $73.2 billion a day earlier, a one-day drop of about 5%, DefiLlama data show.
A Macro-Led Selloff
The immediate trigger sat in equity markets. The Nasdaq Composite closed the prior session down about 2.2%, dragged lower by a sharp drop in semiconductor and AI-linked shares, with a closely watched chip index falling roughly 8%.
Compounding the equity weakness, traders sharply raised the odds of a Federal Reserve rate hike this year after the central bank held its target range at 3.50% to 3.75% but dropped its easing bias. Higher rates lift the dollar and raise the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets, a headwind for Bitcoin and Ether alike. The U.S. Dollar Index climbed to its highest level in more than a year.
Institutional flows have reinforced the pressure. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have logged their largest 30-day outflow on record, with redemptions running for five straight weeks, according to figures circulated by The Kobeissi Letter. ETF redemptions force authorized participants to sell spot Bitcoin into the market, adding mechanical selling pressure on top of the macro move.
Aave Bucks the Trend
Against a sea of red, Aave was the standout gainer among large-cap tokens, with its AAVE governance token rising about 4% over 24 hours even as the rest of the market fell, CoinGecko data show. Aave, one of the largest decentralized lending protocols with roughly $12 billion in deposits, has drawn a cluster of bullish catalysts this month.
Standard Chartered initiated coverage of Aave on Tuesday with a price target of $3,500 by end-2030, up 50x from roughly $70 today. The same week, Aave published a security audit tied to its V4 upgrade and founder Stani Kulechov outlined a proposal to bring traditional securities-finance markets onchain.
The Laggards
The sell-off hit higher-beta large caps the hardest. Cardano’s ADA token slid about 6% over 24 hours, the worst performer among major tokens, while Dogecoin’s DOGE fell about 6% and Chainlink’s LINK dropped roughly 5%, all underperforming Bitcoin’s 4% decline, per CoinGecko. Solana’s SOL and XRP each fell about 4%, roughly in line with Bitcoin, while BNB slipped about 4%.
Tron’s TRX held up best among majors, falling less than 1%, and Hyperliquid’s HYPE fell about 3%. None of the laggards showed a token-specific catalyst on the day; the moves tracked the broad risk-off flush rather than any protocol-level development.
Liquidations
The decline looks orderly rather than disorderly. Liquidations across the market totaled more than $700 million over 24 hours, with the large majority hitting long positions — a sign that leverage is being flushed rather than fresh capital fleeing in panic. That leverage reset can reduce the risk of a sudden cascade lower.
The next catalysts are macro, not onchain. Traders are watching upcoming U.S. inflation data, which could reset rate-hike expectations, and any stabilization in ETF flows that would signal institutional demand returning.