Bitcoin, Ether Little Changed Over Weekend After $400M Liquidation Rout

Analysts expect market volatility to increase next week due to major macroeconomic events such as the CPI release and Janet Yellen’s speech.

The crypto market suffered a pullback following the release of stronger-than-expected US employment data; Meme stocks like GameStop also saw declines, and risky assets like alternative tokens and meme coins were affected.

Bitcoin {{BTC}} and Ethereum {{ETH}} were little changed over the weekend as open interest and trading volumes fell and market momentum faded following the release of $400 million in leverage on Friday.

But analysts at Presto Research told CoinDesk in a market briefing that they expect market volatility to return next week, fueled by macroeconomic catalysts such as Wednesday’s CPI release, Thursday’s FOMC meeting and Janet Yellen’s speech on Friday.

The record leverage increase in Bitcoin futures cost the bulls as the market fell following the release of non-farm payrolls (NFP) numbers on Friday. NFP numbers came in stronger than expected; The US economy added 275,000 jobs compared to the 185,000 expected. BTC saw a sharp decline following its launch, dropping from $71,000 to $69,000.

On the other hand, the decline in meme stock GameStop (GME) put pressure on risk assets such as alternative tokens and meme coins, while major memes dogecoin (DOGE) and shiba inu (SHIB) lost up to 10%.

Since Friday, the number of open positions or outstanding futures contracts across various tokens has fallen from $99 billion to $60 billion, indicating that investors have significantly emptied their bets. According to Coinglass data, volumes are down 10% in the last 24 hours.

BTC traded just above $69,400 in early European trading on Monday, while ETH traded around $3,660. Solana {{SOL}} and xrp {{XRP}} showed slight losses. BNB Chain’s BNB tokens lost 5.5% as investors likely took profits following a lifetime high above $710 last week.

Cardano’s {{ADA}} rose slightly on Monday following confirmation of a technical event that could impact the network’s fundamentals and its token.