Bitcoin Below $60K: Ethereum Tests Support as Crypto Selloff Deepens

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Welcome back to the Daily Crypto Roundup. Bitcoin has fallen back below $60,000.
Ethereum is clinging on to support near $1,570.
Gold and silver are being dragged lower. And now even CZ is saying there is not one simple reason for crypto's brutal 2026 This is one of those days where the market feels heavy, the charts look ugly, and the sentiment has gone properly cold. But as always, we are going to break it down properly, because the headline is not just Bitcoin is down. The bigger story is why Bitcoin is down, why Ethereum is struggling, why money appears to be leaving crypto and moving into AI, and whether this is the final shakeout before the next proper opportunity. At the time of recording, Bitcoin is trading around $59,500.
Ethereum is around $1,566.
XRP is around $1.04.
Solana is around $71.
BNB is around $551.
Hyperliquid is around $62.
Cardano is around $0.14.
And Chainlink is around $7.24.
So once again, Bitcoin is weak, but the altcoins are taking the bigger hit. That has been the pattern throughout this latest move lower. Bitcoin bends, but the smaller coins break harder.
Before we get into it, this show is supported by Kraken. If you are trading crypto and you want to support the podcast, you can do it by signing up through our Kraken link. It helps keep the show going, and we are also giving away 20 XRP to listeners who sign up through that link. As always, this is not financial advice. Only invest what you can afford to lose. So let's start with Bitcoin, because this is the main story today.
Bitcoin has slipped below $60,000 again, and according to CoinDesk, it is now on track for something pretty rare, back to back losing quarters to start the year.
Bitcoin was already down heavily in the first quarter, and now the second quarter is also heading for a loss.
That does not happen very often in Bitcoin's history, and it matters because it shows this is not just a quick weekend dip. This has been months of pressure. The strange thing is that Bitcoin's second quarter has historically been one of its stronger periods. So when you get a weak first quarter followed by a weak second quarter, traders start asking whether the cycle itself has changed, or whether this is simply one of those ugly periods that eventually resets the market before the next major run. And right now, nobody can say that with total confidence. Bitcoin is down almost 7% on the week, but the real damage is in the altcoin market. Ethereum has been hit hard. Dogecoin has dropped double digits. XRP has been sliding. Hyperliquid has pulled back. Solana has actually held up a little better than many others. But even there, the mood is cautious. This is what happens when liquidity dries up. Money becomes more selective. Traders stop chasing risk. Bitcoin becomes the safer corner of a risky market, and altcoins get punished first. The big reason being discussed today is ETF outflows, a stronger dollar, and a more hawkish Federal Reserve. That combination is toxic for risk assets. If the dollar is strong, and if investors believe interest rates may stay higher or even move higher, then speculative assets lose some of their appeal. Crypto does not pay a yield. Gold does not pay a yield. Silver does not pay a yield. So when safer assets start offering better returns, investors ask themselves why they are taking so much risk. And that brings us into the second major story. The sell-off in gold and silver. This is important because for years, Bitcoin has been sold as digital gold. It has been treated as a scarce asset, a hedge against money printing, inflation, debt and currency debasement. But right now, that entire trade is unwinding. Gold is falling, silver is falling, Bitcoin is falling with them. Coindesk described this as the unwinding of the debasement trade. In simple terms, the debasement trade is the idea that governments print too much money, debt keeps rising, and paper currencies lose value over time. So investors buy scarce assets, gold, silver and Bitcoin. That trade worked brilliantly for a while. But now, with the dollar strengthening and the Federal Reserve sounding more hawkish, the market is moving the other way. And this is where Bitcoin's identity crisis comes back. Is Bitcoin a risk asset like a tech stock? Or is it a hard money hedge like gold? The answer, right now, is both. And that is the problem. When risk assets sell off, Bitcoin gets hit. When hard assets sell off, Bitcoin also gets hit. So at the moment, it is being dragged down from both sides. But there is a positive angle here, and we need to be fair.