The combined market capitalization of the top 12 stablecoins fell by about $2.24 billion over the past 10 days, according to Santiment data. This decline tracked Bitcoin’s slide from roughly $95,000 to $88,441, per CoinGecko.
Bitcoin trades near $88,500, up 1.4% on the day but down about 4.2% on the week.
“Normally, when traders sell Bitcoin or altcoins, that money stays in crypto as stablecoins. A falling stablecoin market cap shows that many investors are cashing out to fiat instead of preparing to buy dips,” Santiment said.
Derivatives markets show muted risk appetite. Aggregated Bitcoin open interest remained rangebound between about 245,000 and 267,000 BTC, per Velo data.
Capital appears to be moving toward gold instead. Tim Sun, senior researcher at HashKey Group, said “High volatility makes it difficult to absorb such large-scale safe-haven demand,” and that Bitcoin “may still be perceived as a high-risk tech asset or a game for younger generations.” Gold reached about $5,100 per ounce this week, underlining that shift.
