Global markets plummet as all assets, including Bitcoin, experience a simultaneous sell-off, wiping out trillions.

Markets plunged ahead of the US open, Bitcoin dropped below $85k, and gold also declined

At 09:30 EST, the market shifted in a way that traders could physically sense, the sort of change that leads you to stop seeking clever reasons and start assessing your actual margin availability.

Bitcoin rolled over, then it fell, and subsequently started to move in abrupt segments. On one screen, the S&P 500 e-mini was declining, the dollar was strengthening, oil was surging higher, and the so-called safe haven metals were being impacted simultaneously. Many traders only needed a few candlesticks to realize that this was going to be one of those afternoons where the market sells off first and attempts to rationalize later.

By 11:00 EST, Bitcoin was trading around $84,434 after reaching an intraday low of $84,365, marking a decline of approximately 5.4% for the day.

On TradingView, the overall picture appeared grim at first glance, with oil up about 3%, the dollar index up about 0.3%, S&P futures down around 1.1%, Bitcoin down around 4.7%, gold down nearly 5.8%, and silver down more than 6%. Everything that typically conveys a clear narrative was overlapping in noise.

Global market crash Jan 29

And that is the crux of the matter.

This was a “liquidity wins” maneuver, where positioning takes precedence over narrative, at least initially. Those who entered the day with significant risk received their answers within the first hour of the US session.

The rumor mill is buzzing, the market is even louder

You will observe the speculation; insiders are acting ahead of a strike, someone has knowledge regarding Iran, the usual chatter.

There is no verified “attack headline” to reference here, at least not from major news sources. What is factual is that markets have been assessing the risk of escalation in the background, and oil has been reacting strongly to it.

The oil movement is the clearest indication, with Brent crude surpassing $71 a barrel, as traders focus on the rising tensions between the US and Iran and the risks associated with the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint.

In other words, a confirmed event is not necessary for the market to begin pricing in the potential for one. A barrel that spikes acts as a tax on everything else, fueling inflation concerns, impacting consumer sentiment, altering interest rates, making equity investors anxious, and turning a typical selloff into something more severe.

The US open was the catalyst

The timing is crucial. 09:30 EST marks the opening of US cash equity markets, the moment when liquidity increases, and significant flows can actually penetrate through levels.

This is also when many systematic strategies begin to activate, and when discretionary desks finally have the volume to execute their thoughts from the morning. If the market has been leaning in one direction, the open is where that inclination is tested.

In today’s session, weakness in US tech was already palpable. Investors were processing fresh concerns regarding AI infrastructure spending and cloud growth, with Microsoft at the center of this narrative.

The Financial Times reported a decline in US tech shares following Microsoft’s increase in data center expenditures, unsettling investors, leading to a sharp decline in the stock and dragging sentiment across the sector.

When equities falter at the open, crypto does not remain unaffected in a separate realm. Bitcoin trades continuously, but it is still regarded as a global risk asset in terms of how it is financed, margined, hedged, and benchmarked. A shaky US open often results in crypto being treated as a leveraged reaction to the same fears.

Why Bitcoin dropped so rapidly

A quick decline in Bitcoin typically has a mechanical aspect, and this was evident in the price movement.

The initial drop often results from spot selling and hedging, followed by the derivatives market taking charge. Stops get triggered, funding dynamics shift, open interest declines, and liquidations take over. The selling increasingly becomes less about conviction and more about regulations, margin requirements, and enforced executions.

If you seek a key datapoint to observe in real-time during these fluctuations, it is liquidation prints and how they cluster around significant levels.

The latest data from Coinglass indicates over $800 million in liquidations, with $691 million coming from long positions in the past 24 hours.

Crypto market liquidations (Source: Coinglass)

This does not explain why the first domino fell, but rather illustrates why the second, third, and tenth dominos fell more swiftly than the initial one.

Gold selling during risk-off periods seems counterintuitive until you observe it

Many will pose the same question: gold is supposed to be the safe haven, so why did it decline?

The truthful answer is that gold reacts differently depending on the panic stage.

In the initial phase, the market is attempting to raise cash. While this sounds straightforward, it has implications. Traders sell what they can, not merely what they desire. Liquid markets are utilized like ATMs. Gold is liquid, thus it gets impacted.

The second factor is the dollar. When the dollar strengthens, it often applies pressure on dollar-denominated commodities, at least during intraday trading.

The third element is that gold had already experienced a parabolic rise. Gold and silver had surged to record highs, then sharply retreated, with speculation and a slightly stronger US dollar at play.

Gold reached a peak around $5,602 per ounce before dropping back toward $5,100.

When an asset has surged so rapidly, much of the “safe haven” demand is already reflected in the price. Once the music stops, the primary objective is to reduce risk and eliminate leverage, which means selling what has a buyer.

If geopolitical risks continue, gold can still perform as people expect over a longer timeframe. That represents a different time horizon than the initial hour of a de-risking move.

Using the World Gold Council’s estimate of above-ground supply, the decline from approximately $5,602 an ounce to about $5,100 reduced gold’s implied market value from around $38 trillion to $36 trillion, resulting in a loss of roughly $2 trillion, which is comparable to the entire cryptocurrency market cap at around $3 trillion.

The simplest interpretation of the tape

When you combine the cross-asset picture, it conveys the following.

Oil surged, which rattled inflation and geopolitical stability, equities declined into the US open, the dollar strengthened, and leveraged trades were squeezed. Bitcoin, gold, and silver fell in unison because the market was deleveraging, not because they suddenly shared the same fundamentals.

This explanation is less thrilling than a narrative of “insiders knowing something,” but it aligns with what we can actually observe in public reporting and price movements.

What to monitor next

If you are trying to determine whether this develops into a full-day event or just a sharp flush, a few indicators typically matter.

Bitcoin’s reaction following a liquidation wave is one. If it stabilizes and begins to reclaim levels that were cleanly breached, the move is often reframed as a stop run. If it continues to trend lower with weak recoveries, it suggests that the selling has shifted from forced to intentional.

Oil is another consideration. The market can handle a temporary spike, but it struggles with a prolonged repricing. If crude continues to rise, risk assets usually feel the impact.

Then there is the dollar. A strong dollar tends to tighten global liquidity, and it is also generally uncomfortable for risk trades that are financed in dollars.

And, of course, keep an eye on the headlines, but interpret them correctly. Today features plenty of background noise regarding Iran, but the market is already pricing in the fear. If a confirmed escalation hits the news, the move may extend. If it does not, the market may begin to fade the premium, and the rebound could be abrupt.

For now, the clearest way to summarize the last 90 minutes is straightforward: the market is actively reducing risk, and everything that was crowded is being put to the test.

Some assets are already attempting to bounce back, but their recovery may depend on what unfolds next in the Middle East.

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