Bitcoin Weakens Below $67K as Risk Assets Slip; Precious Metals Gain

Bitcoin and ether extended their pullback over the past day, pressuring crypto-linked equities, while gold and silver rallied on renewed expectations of Federal Reserve easing.

Bitcoin fell 2.4% to trade around $66,900, and ether dropped 2.7%, sliding back under the $2,000 level. The broader CoinDesk 20 Index declined 3.7%, reflecting broad selling across major tokens.

Crypto-exposed equities tracked the weakness. Coinbase shares fell about 4% in pre-market trading, while Bullish retreated 2.3%. Bitcoin treasury firms Strategy (MSTR) and Strive (ASST) each declined roughly 2.3%. Robinhood slid 4.7% after reporting a 38% drop in fourth-quarter crypto revenue.

In contrast, precious metals moved higher. Gold rose 0.9% to $5,070 per ounce, while silver jumped more than 5%. The gains followed weaker-than-expected U.S. retail sales data, which signaled slowing consumer demand and reinforced the case for potential rate cuts.

The U.S. dollar softened and Treasury yields declined as traders adjusted their policy outlook. On prediction markets, the implied probability of a March Federal Reserve rate cut climbed from 7% at the start of the month to approximately 19% on Polymarket and 21% on Kalshi.

Derivatives Show Ongoing Deleveraging

Futures positioning suggests bearish momentum is building. Bitcoin open interest has fallen to $15.6 billion, indicating continued reduction of leveraged positions.

Funding rates have moved deeper into negative territory, notably on Binance (-6%) and Bybit (-0.50%), while the three-month futures basis has narrowed to 1.6%, pointing to cooling institutional demand.

Options markets reflect elevated caution. The one-week 25-delta skew has risen to 23%, signaling strong demand for downside protection. However, calls still account for 55% of positioning, suggesting some traders are selectively positioning for a potential rebound.

Implied volatility remains relatively stable across maturities, leaving the term structure balanced between backwardation and contango — a sign of expensive short-term hedging alongside steadier long-term volatility expectations.

Data from Coinglass shows $297 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, with long positions accounting for 77% of the total. Bitcoin led with $121 million in liquidations, followed by ether at $89 million. Binance’s liquidation heatmap identifies $66,100 as a key support level should selling pressure intensify.

Spark Expands Institutional Lending Offerings

Separately, Spark — the onchain capital allocator incubated by Sky — announced two new lending solutions aimed at institutional borrowers, targeting the estimated $33 billion offchain crypto lending market.

Spark Prime allows institutions to trade on margin and settle off-exchange while deploying collateral across both centralized and decentralized venues. Spark Institutional Lending is tailored for firms requiring regulated custody, enabling them to borrow against assets held offchain through integrations with custodians such as Anchorage Digital.

Spark currently manages more than $9 billion in stablecoin liquidity across DeFi and reports $5.2 billion in total value locked, according to DefiLlama. Its governance token, SPK, rose over 2% in the past 24 hours, outperforming the broader crypto market despite the prevailing risk-off sentiment.