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Bitcoin slides to $91,000 as U.S. trade tensions spur selloff : Crypto Markets Today
Bitcoin erased last week’s rally as Asia-led selling hit crypto alongside falling U.S. equity futures.
Jan 20, 2026, 11:39 a.m.
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What to know:
- BTC fell to $91,120 after reversing the move to $98,000, tracking a sharp drop in Nasdaq and S&P 500 index futures on renewed U.S.–EU tariff tensions tied to Greenland.
- Over $360 million in crypto futures liquidations hit longs hardest; bitcoin 30-day implied volatility rebounded to 42%, and options markets continue to price puts above calls.
- Ether and solana dropped more than 3%, DeFi tokens AERO and SKY slid over 5.5% and the memecoin sector lagged, with stability hinging on whether BTC can hold the $85,000–$95,000 range.
Bitcoin and the wider crypto market took another leg down, with the BTC price reversing all of last week's move to $98,000.
The Asia session spurred most of the selling as prices began to tumble at 01:15 UTC before consolidating at 07:00 UTC.
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Privacy coins monero and dash lost 9% and 3% respectively since midnight as trader interest cooled following a barnstorming start to the year.
Tuesday's crypto market selloff mirrors a move in U.S. equity index futures. Futures tied to the Nasdaq 100 fell more than 1.9% since derivatives markets opened on Sunday evening while S&P 500 futures are down by 1.6%.
The negative price action can be attributed to the same jitters that dominated Monday's environment, with the EU and the U.S. threatening each other with tariffs if they can't find a resolution to the Greenland situation.
Haven assets extended rallies, with gold and silver rallying to record highs.
Derivatives positioning
- Crypto futures bets worth over $360 million were liquidated by exchanges in 24 hours, with bullish bets accounting for most of the tally.
- Bitcoin's 30-day implied volatility (IV), represented by the BVIV index, has bounced to 42% from 39.7%, pointing to renewed demand for options, or hedging instruments.
- The 30-day IV in the U.S. Treasury notes increased slightly from multi-year lows, but remains considerably lower than in November. A continued rise in bond market volatility could breed risk aversion.
- DOGE, ZEC and ADA are leading the decline in futures open interest (OI) across most tokens, indicating capital outflows. OI in BTC futures held steady over 24 hours.
- Still, funding rates for most major tokens remain positive, indicating a bias for bullish exposure. Rates for ZEC and TRX are deeply negative, a sign of dominance of bearish short positions.
- On Deribit, traders continue to price put options higher than calls in both BTC and ether . That indicates lingering downside fears.
- On decentralized platform Derive, traders are pricing a 30% chance of BTC sliding below $80,000.
Token talk
- The lower liquidity altcoin market suffered more than bitcoin as even the major cryptocurrencies like ether and solana fell more than 3%.
- DeFi tokens AERO and SKY were even harder hit by the week's bearish price action, losing more than 5.5% in 24 hours.
- And while a select few traders are still turning hundreds of dollars into hundreds of thousands of dollars, the memecoin sector was deflated on Tuesday; with the CoinDesk Memecoin Index (CDMEME) posting a day-to-date loss of 3.91%, underperforming all other benchmarks.
- The broader altcoin market is now very much depending on bitcoin's next move. If the largest cryptocurrency begins to consolidate between $85,000 and $95,000, altcoins could stabilize, leaving certain sectors to impress.
- However, extended volatility, for example a drop through $85,000, would result in carnage for the altcoin sector as liquidity has failed to recover from October's $19 billion liquidation cascade.
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Bitcoin could fall to $10,000 as U.S. recession risk builds, Mike McGlone says
McGlone links bitcoin’s downturn to record U.S. market cap-to-GDP levels, low equity volatility and rising gold prices, warning of potential contagion into stocks.
What to know:
- Bloomberg Intelligence strategist Mike McGlone warns that collapsing crypto prices and a potential bitcoin slide toward $10,000 could signal mounting financial stress and foreshadow a U.S. recession.
- McGlone argues the post-2008 "buy the dip" era may be ending as crypto weakens, stock market valuations sit near century highs relative to GDP, and equity volatility remains unusually low.
- Market analyst Jason Fernandes counters that a drop to $10,000 bitcoin would likely require a severe systemic shock and recession, calling such an outcome a low-probability tail risk compared with a milder reset or consolidation.
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