Bitcoin (BTC) and Altcoins Face Significant Market Sell-Off

The cryptocurrency market has experienced a sharp downturn, with Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins facing significant losses. Investors are locking in losses amid volatile market conditions.

Cryptocurrency prices plunged on Monday evening, continuing a sell-off that has gripped the digital asset market for the past two weeks.

Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) briefly dipped below the $93,000 level before recovering to trade above $98,000. At press time, BTC was trading down 1.3% over the past 24 hours.

After rallying to an all-time high of over $110,000 in late January, Bitcoin has now lost more than $12,000 from its peak price.

The sell-off in Bitcoin follows a sharp rally that saw the apex cryptocurrency multiply in value by more than 3 times since the beginning of 2025.

Despite the recent decline, Bitcoin is still up more than 20% year-to-date and on track for its best performing January since 2017.

Altcoins Feel the Heat: A Deep Dive into the Sell-Off Pressure

The sell-off in Bitcoin has also impacted the broader cryptocurrency market, with altcoins facing significant losses.

According to data from CoinGecko, the total cryptocurrency market cap fell by more than $200 billion over the past two weeks.

The sell-off in altcoins has been particularly severe, with many tokens struggling to achieve adoption or product-market fit.

This has led to a widespread collapse in token prices, with all altcoin sub-sectors underperforming Bitcoin in recent weeks.

A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of token returns shows a lack of idiosyncratic behavior, indicating that tokens moved lower in a correlated manner.

The sell-off in altcoins has also varied in intensity across different timeframes.

Over the past 30 days, Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) and Filecoin (CRYPTO: FIL) were among the worst performers, while ApeCoin (CRYPTO: APE) and Lido DAO (CRYPTO: LDO) led the gainers.

However, over the longer term, Solana and Filecoin outperformed ApeCoin and Lido DAO, which have both declined from their all-time highs.

Solana is currently trading down more than 80% from its all-time high of over $260, while Filecoin is down more than 90% from its all-time high of over $230.

Meanwhile, ApeCoin has rallied by more than 1,200% since its launch in March 2023 and Lido DAO is up over 3,800% from its all-time low in December 2022.