Share this article
Market Wrap: Bitcoin Tumbles to $9.8K; Investors Continue Plowing Crypto Into DeFi
Bitcoin price took another dive while DeFi is still looking mighty attractive to investors.
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 9:52 a.m. Published Sep 4, 2020, 8:36 p.m.
Bitcoin is in bear territory for the third straight day and investors are still looking to DeFi to capture gains during the dump.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
- Bitcoin trading around $10,606 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Slipping 0.90% over the previous 24 hours.
- Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $9,894-$10,081
- BTC below its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bearish signal for market technicians.
Bitcoin’s price dropped below $10,000 Friday, sliding as low as $9,894 on spot exchanges such as Coinbase.
“It’s not the best look for BTC from a momentum and positive volume standpoint, to be honest,” said Constantine Kogan, partner at crypto fund of funds BitBull Capital.
Read More: V-Shaped Recovery From Bitcoin’s Biggest Drop Since March Unlikely
David Lifchitz, chief investment officer for crypto quantitative firm ExoAlpha, says traders are taking profit after bitcoin could not get past $12,100. It may seem like a long time ago but the price went as high as $12,058 only Tuesday.
“It looks like some bitcoin holders decided that this last failed breakout was one too many,” he told CoinDesk. “A full move could potentially bring the price back toward $9,500.
Lifchitz added that a few more fundamental factors that might be influencing the bearish bitcoin run.
“We observed that the market started to fade as South Korea’s largest exchange, Bithumb, had been raided by police,” he noted.
Read More: Police Reportedly Raid Headquarters of Bithumb
“It could also be miners deciding to monetize their rewards,” Lifchitz added. Indeed, bitcoin holders, which could include larger holders such as miners, are pushing more inflows into exchanges to its highest levels since late July.
“In my opinion, this is a classic case of an overstretched market, which had advanced too much too quickly, and so was in dire need of consolidation,” said Jean-Marc Bonnefous, managing partner of multi-asset manager Tellurian Capital. “Crypto is dropping in sympathy with other traditional risk assets,” he added.
Equities indexes were in the red Friday:
- Asia’s Nikkei 225 closed down 1.1% as major stocks in the pharmaceuticals, consumer staples and technology sectors fell.
- Europe’s FTSE 100 ended the day slipping 0.88% as Bank of England officials forecast an economic downward trend for the balance of 2020.
- The United States’ S&P 500 lost 0.50% after the index fell as low as 3.1% in early trading on dropping tech sector stocks but rallied later, with the banking sector eking out gains.
Alessandro Andreotti, an Italy-based crypto over-the-counter trader, is optimistic despite the currency cryptocurrency market environment. “Bitcoin has been extremely oversold. It actually reminds me of the March crash,” he said. “But, honestly, I think it can bounce back after this drop.”
Read More: Wasabi Wallet Patches Flaw That Could Have Thwarted Bitcoin Privacy
More crypto locked in DeFi
Ether , the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was down Friday, trading around $392 and slipping 2.5% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).
Read More: Binance Eyes Uniswap’s Lunch With Launch of Centralized ‘Swaps’ Platform
Yields in DeFi may become important to crypto traders should the market continue to show bearish signals: Ether locked in DeFi is up, from 5 million to 6.9 million in the past week, a 35% increase.
Investors also continue to lock bitcoin into decentralized finance. There are now over 74,000 BTC in use on Ethereum as those who lock in bitcoin gain a yield or profit in the DeFi ecosystem. In the past week, the amount of bitcoin in DeFi has increased 33%.
“An amazing amount of BTC is locked into DeFi, earning hodlers ‘dividends’ for simply owning the asset,” noted Henrik Kugelberg, a Swedish crypto over-the-counter trader.
Read More: Tether, Bitfinex File Motion to Dismiss Market Manipulation Lawsuit
Other markets
Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are almost all in the red Friday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
Read More: Stacks Foundation to Spend ‘Majority’ of STX Token Fortune on Ecosystem
Notable losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
Read More: BitMEX to List Futures for New Crypto Coins for First Time in Over 2 Years
Commodities:
- Oil is down 4.2%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $39.50.
- Gold is in the green 0.25% and at $1,935 as of press time.
Read More: Craig Wright Trial Over a Fortune in Bitcoin Moved to 2021
Treasurys:
- U.S. Treasury bonds yields all climbed Friday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were up most on the 10-year, in the green 11.2%.
Read More: BitClub Promoter Pleads Guilty for Role in $722M Fraudulent Mining Scheme
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
SGX's Crypto Futures Draw New Liquidity, Not Diverted Cash, Exchange Boss Says
Institutions are pursuing cash-and-carry arbitrage, not outright bullish plays, Syn said.
What to know:
- SGX's bitcoin and ether perpetual futures are building liquidity incrementally, Michael Syn, president of the Singapore exchange, said.
- Institutions are pursuing cash-and-carry arbitrage, not outright bullish plays, he added.
- The exchange's regulated perpetual futures offer improved risk-management practices, avoiding the high-leverage auto-liquidations common in unregulated markets.
Top Stories
