Ether, XRP, Dogecoin Lead Crypto Selloff as Tech Stocks Tumble
Ether, XRP, and Dogecoin took the worst of the crypto selloff heading into the weekend, falling harder than Bitcoin as tech stocks dragged risk assets lower worldwide. Crypto keeps trying to act like it has its own plot. My take: on days like this, it still trades like a crowded tech wager with extra leverage strapped on.
The pressure started outside crypto, again. Global stocks fell to a two-week low. Apple dropped 6.1% after raising prices on Macs, iPads, and home devices, and that fed the fear that higher component costs could slow the memory-chip rally behind the AI trade. South Korea’s Kospi fell as much as 9%, enough to trigger its second trading halt of the week. SK Hynix and Samsung both lost more than 8%. Nasdaq 100 futures were down 1.5%. Brent crude slipped below $74 a barrel. That barely helped the mood after a projectile strike on a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz briefly brought supply worries back.
Here is the tape. Ether fell 5.6% over 24 hours to about $1,555 and lost 7.9% for the week, the steepest drop among the large caps, according to CoinDesk data. XRP dropped 4.9% to $1.03, leaving it down 8.5% for the week. Dogecoin fell 3.8% to $0.074 and lost 9.8% over seven days. Solana held up better at $68, down 1.2% on the week. Hyperliquid’s HYPE lost 5.4%. Tron was the one name in green, up 0.4%. Bitcoin dipped near $58,000 before moving back toward $60,000. It traded around $59,888, down 2.7% on the day and 4.5% for the week. Gabe Selby, head of research at CF Benchmarks, called it a market cooldown, not a sign that something inside crypto had broken. I’ll be honest: that sounds right. This looks less like a crypto-specific failure and more like investors suddenly deciding they have less patience for risk.
The awkward part is how familiar it feels. When tech sells off, especially a stock like Apple, crypto usually gets hit quickly. Most guides still talk about crypto as if it floats outside the equity market. That’s only half right. Inflation fears, rising component costs, and weakness in chip stocks point back to the same trade. Crypto is not a tech stock. Plenty of investors still treat it like one with extra torque.
Why does this matter? Because the “uncorrelated asset” argument gets pretty thin in weeks like this. When people cut risk, they sell the speculative stuff first. Altcoins take the hit before Bitcoin because Bitcoin still has deeper liquidity and, fair or not, more trust. Counter to the usual advice, the safer crypto trade in a selloff is often not the newest narrative. It is the thing everyone can exit without blowing through the order book.
Crypto had its own selling pressure too. Selby said part of Bitcoin’s pullback came from large holders selling sizable amounts into a market that has been slow to absorb the extra supply. He also said much of the new money and attention has moved toward AI trades lately, leaving crypto to fight for a smaller share of risk appetite. That matters. Capital gets bored fast. Right now AI has the cleaner story, the bigger bids, the easier pitch, and the boardroom-friendly label. Crypto is trying to argue for fresh inflows while existing holders sell into weakness. We have seen this setup before: not identical, but close enough to make the reflex obvious.
Selby said the current area has often stopped Bitcoin declines in the past. “Bitcoin has pulled back into the $50,000 to $60,000 zone today, and if history is any guide, this is where buyers step in,” he said. So the market is back where it has been all week: Bitcoin trying to hold a zone it has not lost in nearly two years, while the altcoins around it crack faster. Is that bullish? Not by itself. It is just the first place buyers have to prove they still exist.
What this means
This selloff shows, again, that crypto is still tied to macro pressure and risk-off trading. The link with tech stocks, especially the Nasdaq 100, is hard to miss. When inflation worries and higher costs hit tech, crypto tends to feel it too. Ether, XRP, and Dogecoin just feel it harder. For investors treating crypto as a speculative growth trade, this is the part that stings: gold gets the panic bid more often. Crypto usually does not.
Yes, that contradicts the clean bull-market version of the story. Bear with me. Crypto can still have its own cycles and still get dragged around by Apple pricing, SK Hynix, Samsung, Nasdaq 100 futures, and the memory-chip trade when the macro tape turns ugly. The move into AI trades says the quiet part plainly: crypto needs a better reason for new money to come in than “prices might go up.” That works in a bull market. It gets weaker when everyone is cutting exposure.
From here, Bitcoin’s $50,000 to $60,000 range matters. Selby pointed to $55,000 as the support level to watch and $61,000 to $62,000 as the area bulls need to win back. A clean break below $55,000 would make the downside look rougher. A move back above $61,000 to $62,000 would give buyers something to work with. Keep sizes sane. The next push could come from inflation data, central bank signals, another move in tech stocks, or another round of selling from large holders. Apple pricing and the memory-chip trade suddenly matter for crypto sentiment too. Annoying? Yes. Surprising after a week like this? Not really.