Singapore, Feb 1, 2026, 03:50 SGT
Bitcoin slid below $80,000 on Saturday, extending a sharp pullback as traders fretted over tighter U.S. liquidity after former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh was selected as the next Fed chair. The biggest cryptocurrency was down 6.53% at $78,719.63 at 12:48 p.m. ET, and is about a third off October record highs; it hit $81,104 on Friday, the lowest since Nov. 21. Ether fell 11.76% to $2,387.77, as cryptocurrencies lagged rallies in gold and stocks and early hopes for friendlier policy under Donald Trump cooled, Reuters reported.
The fresh dip is forcing traders to rethink a popular bet: that money would rotate from bitcoin into smaller tokens in an “altcoin season,” when alternative cryptocurrencies outperform. Instead, a lot of the chatter has shifted to risk control, forced selling and whether the market still has the cash to chase speculative rallies.
On Friday, bitcoin traded around $82,300 and was heading for a fourth straight month of losses, its longest losing streak in eight years, Reuters reported, as investors weighed what a Warsh-led Fed could mean for liquidity. “Pulling the rug out” from under balance-sheet hedges can trigger selling, said Damien Boey, a portfolio strategist at Wilson Asset Management, while Sean Dawson at Derive.xyz said “fears around AI exuberance” also fed the selloff after a sharp drop in Microsoft shares. Reuters
Leverage has made the slide messier. Binance’s news feed said major exchanges saw about $125 million of crypto futures liquidations in the past hour, citing data from NS3.AI, with roughly $1.53 billion liquidated over 24 hours. Futures liquidations are forced closures of leveraged bets when prices move against traders.
Some investors have been bracing for more pain. In a post on Binance Square, user Htp96 pointed to bearish divergences on the RSI and MACD — two momentum gauges — and said losing the 50-week moving average had preceded deep bitcoin drawdowns in the past. The post argued that “reducing position size” can be a risk management choice and that a “strong explosive cycle of altcoins in 2026 faces considerable challenges.” Binance
A separate analysis carried by TradingView from Coinpedia tied the altcoin debate to stablecoins — dollar-pegged tokens that act as cash-like fuel in crypto trading. It cited Santiment data showing the combined market value of the top 12 stablecoins fell by $2.24 billion over 10 days and argued that shrinking supply can signal money leaving risk assets. It also referenced Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine, who said a gold-and-silver FOMO rally had become a “temporary ceiling” for crypto upside. TradingView
Earlier this month, Blockchain.News spotlighted a chart-based call from BullTheoryio that focused on the ALT/BTC ratio — a measure of broad altcoin performance versus bitcoin. The post flagged an oversold RSI reading and a possible MACD turn, and linked the setup to risk appetite signals from the Russell 2000.
The selloff is also sharpening the competitive split inside crypto. Bitcoin is still the bellwether, but ether and smaller tokens tend to swing harder, and that cuts both ways when sentiment turns.
The risk for altcoin bulls is that the macro story gets worse before it gets better. If Warsh follows through with a push toward a smaller Fed balance sheet, or if the dollar keeps grinding higher, crypto could see more forced unwinds and thinner liquidity — the exact mix that usually crushes smaller coins first.
For now, traders are watching for signs the slide is stabilising: whether bitcoin can hold key levels, whether liquidations ease, and whether cash piles up again in stablecoins. Until that happens, “altcoin season” reads more like a slogan than a timetable.
