Nischal Shetty, Founder, WazirX
"A sharp Nasdaq sell-off and a jump in market volatility did little to dent Bitcoin on Monday, but Ether's weekly slide shows how unevenly the market is holding up.
Bitcoin shrugged off a rough session on Wall Street. The largest cryptocurrency traded near $82,200, up about 0.9% over 24 hours and down 2% on the week. The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.14%, the S&P 500 lost 1.09%, and the Dow slipped 0.34%. Investors usually treat Bitcoin as a high-beta technology proxy in risk-off moves, so that resilience stands out.
Ether told a different story. It changed hands around $2,411, up 0.35% on the day but down 5.22% over seven days, more than double Bitcoin's weekly loss. At roughly 0.0293 bitcoin per ether, the pair's ratio suggests investors are favoring the larger, more established asset when conditions turn cautious.
Trading activity was subdued. Bitcoin's 24-hour volume of $19.3 billion is only about 1.2% of its $1.65 trillion market cap, and Ether's $8.04 billion is about 2.7% of its $294.5 billion. Modest gains on light volume are hard to read as conviction either way.
Traditional markets sent a more cautious signal. The VIX, Wall Street's fear gauge, jumped 21.5% to 19.99, just shy of the 20 level traders often use as a marker of rising stress. Gold edged up 0.3% to $4,193, while oil, still above $100 a barrel, slipped 0.8%. Elevated energy prices remain a risk for inflation and, by extension, interest-rate expectations, which matter for every risk asset.
The crypto market is showing modest gains, with the total market capitalisation rising 0.78% to $2.75 trillion. The CMC20 index, which tracks the performance of leading crypto assets, is up 0.85% at $168.09, indicating a broadly positive market trend.
However, investor sentiment remains cautious. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index stands at 49, firmly in neutral territory, suggesting that market participants are yet to develop a strong bullish or bearish conviction. Meanwhile, the Altcoin Season Index is at 54, indicating relatively balanced performance between altcoins and Bitcoin, without a decisive shift towards an altcoin-led rally.
What to watch: The key question is whether crypto's resilience survives a second day of equity weakness. A sustained VIX above 20 and continued Ether underperformance would both point to thinning risk appetite."