Bitcoin (BTC) Briefly Tumbles Below $98,000 Mark, Experiencing a Significant Drop of Over 7%, Alongside a Wider Tech Sector Sell-off

The apex cryptocurrency made a low of $97,791 on Monday morning, before rebounding above $100,000 at the time of writing.

Bitcoin BTC/USD experienced a sharp decline on Monday morning, tumbling below the $98,000 mark. This significant drop of over 7% occurred amid a wider sell-off in the tech sector.

The apex cryptocurrency reached a low of $97,791 on Monday morning, before rebounding to trade above $100,000 at the time of writing.

Among other major cryptocurrencies, Solana SOL/USD, BNB BNB/USD and Dogecoin DOGE/USD are trading down 11.5%, 4.4% and 11% respectively, according to data from CoinGecko.

What Happened: In a note sent to Benzinga, Geoffrey Kendrick of Standard Chartered said a 3% decline in Nasdaq futures drove the digital assets liquidation overnight.

Kendrick highlighted that Bitcoin’s correlation with the Nasdaq is significantly stronger than its correlation with gold.

He noted that if the Nasdaq sell-off continues, particularly ahead of this week’s earnings releases, Bitcoin could approach a critical support level, specifically the average purchase level for Bitcoin ETFs since the presidential election, which now stands at $96,400.

According to data from CoinGlass, positions worth $883.9 million got liquidated over the last 24 hours, of which 811.3 million were long liquidations.

Kendrick also commented on the recent announcement from the Trump administration regarding a “digital stockpile,” instead of a “digital reserve,” which had led some in the community to believe that assets would be seized.

He noted that the executive order from the Trump administration will need congressional approval, which will take time.

"The disappointment for me was two-fold," Kendrick said.

He added that this disappointment has reduced the "hope phase" in the market, which could help it transition from "phase 1 to phase 2" in a list of Bitcoin market phases.

Adding to the market uncertainty is the rise of China’s Deepseek AI model, according to QCP Capital.

“A week into Trump’s presidency and BTC dipped back below $100,000 … as news of China’s Deepseek continue to spread from the weekend.”

The firm highlighted that the Chinese AI technology could disrupt the U.S. equity markets and that the Trump administration may need to take retaliatory steps.

“The Chinese LLM poses a potential threat to US equity markets by disrupting U.S. AI dominance … We’ll have to wait and see what drastic measures his administration might take to save the US equity market.”

QCP Capital further noted the market volatility surrounding the upcoming FOMC meeting this Thursday.

Despite the current dip, QCP believes that Bitcoin will continue to trade within a range.

They suggest that Bitcoin’s resilience will be tested this week and anticipate that “BTC should remain relatively resilient as it continues to trade in this familiar range.”

What’s Next: The analysts at Standard Chartered and QCP Capital both suggest potential for a rebound.

Kendrick's analysis notes a significant drop in UST (United States Treasury) yields, which could mean the sell-off has reached its potential floor.

Kendrick advises investors to "buy the dip."

Similarly, QCP suggests that “risk reversals remain skewed in favor of Calls only from March onwards,” signaling optimism beyond the immediate market turmoil, and that a potential Trump intervention could provide a catalyst for growth.