Bitcoin drops below $80,000 as crypto ignores Asian tech rally, Fed meeting begins

Bitcoin BTC $84,459.46 slipped below $80,000 on Tuesday, dropping 0.4% since midnight UTC to near $79,700. Altcoins fell further, with ether ETH $2,490.55, the largest, losing 0.5%. The DeFi index (DFX) dropped 1.8%, the most of any CoinDesk index, a reversal from Monday, when it was the only index to gain.

U.S. stock index futures edged lower ahead of big-tech earnings later this week. Asian tech shares rallied, with South Korea’s Kospi rising 3.1%, though the advance didn’t pull crypto along with it. Oil rose, with U.S. crude approaching $102 a barrel.

The Federal Reserve begins a two-day meeting today, with an interest-rate decision on Wednesday and CME’s FedWatch tool showing around a 90% chance of no change. Traders will be looking for clues on whether another rate increase is likely before year-end. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs took in $110 million on Monday, according to Farside Investors, ending two days of outflows.

Derivatives positioning

Volume surge: Across crypto futures, volume rose 18% to $152 billion in 24 hours after falling yesterday, while open interest (OI) rose just 0.95%. Liquidations eased 13% to $133 million. The taker long/short ratio is 49.54% to 50.46%, so market orders were split almost evenly.

Capital inflows on the dip: BTC and ETH fell about 1.1% over 24 hours and SOL lost 1.91%, while their futures open interest rose about 1%, 0.8% and 3.6%, respectively. Money entered as prices fell, with SOL adding the most. Funding stayed positive for all three, so longs have not left. SOL's cumulative volume delta (CVD) ended negative, which shows market-order selling.