Why Is Crypto Down Today? – August 12, 2025

The crypto market is down today, with about 10 coins staying in green over the past 24 hours. In this time, the cryptocurrency market capitalization has decreased by 2.5%, now standing at $4.04 trillion. At the same time, the total crypto trading volume is at $168 billion.

Crypto Winners & Losers

Five of the top 10 coins per market capitalization have decreased over the past 24 hours, while three are up (not taking the two stablecoins into account).

Bitcoin (BTC) fell 2.5% in a day and below the $122,000 mark, now trading at $118,947.

At the same time, Ethereum (ETH) is green, but its rise is so low that it’s practically unchanged, now trading at $4,292.

The highest drop is 6% by Dogecoin (DOGE), which currently changes hands at $0.2237.

On the other hand, the only green coin that moved enough for a price change is Tron (TRX). It’s up 2.1%, trading at $0.3468.

As for the top 100 coins, the best performer is Pump.fun (PUMP). It’s up 6% to $0.003623.

Two more coins saw increases above 1%. One is the above-mentioned Tron, while the other is Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which appreciated 2.4% to the price of $593.99.

At the same time, Story (IP) fell the most: 17.3% to $5.6. Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) and Bonk (BONK) also recorded double-digit decreases of 12.9% and 12.5% to $0.03567 and $0.00002446, respectively.

July saw a rotation into altcoins, clearly led by Ethereum, whose market share increased to 11.8%, per Binance Research.

Meanwhile, payments giant Stripe is reportedly developing Tempo, a Layer 1 blockchain focused on payments, in partnership with crypto venture capital firm Paradigm. A since-removed job ad described an Ethereum-compatible blockchain and a five-person team targeting Fortune 500 companies.

‘US CPI Data Could Trigger BTC’s Next ATH’

Alice Liu, Head of Research at CoinMarketCap, commented that there are three US-related things that “heavily impact crypto.” These are:

At the moment, “Wall Street and global markets are hyper-focused on the CPI data, making it one of the most critical macro factors this week.”

Per Liu,

Consumer Price Index (CPI) expected to be released today “could potentially trigger Bitcoin’s next all-time high or support the rally.”

Liu explains that a softer CPI could lock in expectations for a September Federal Reserve rate cut, which is generally bullish for risk-on assets like crypto.

“Analysts on Bloomberg have a wide range of predictions, some expecting significant rate cuts. This could inject liquidity into the market, but expect volatility on Tuesday due to the CPI release,” the researcher says.

Additionally, BTC and ETH options saw open interest from derivatives traders reach $43 billion and $14 billion, respectively, nearing yearly highs. This could “amplify volatility, so be cautious of short squeezes, sudden liquidations, or sharp price moves.”

MicroStrategy’s buys are still relevant. They indicate Wall Street’s confidence, driving markets. “Their weekly filings boost sentiment, but the actual buying impact is decreasing as they buy less and are more cautious with leverage.”

However, Liu warns, “this centralization – BlackRock and MicroStrategy holding significant BTC – raises concerns for Bitcoin’s decentralization, a double-edged sword we’ll need to watch, especially in a potential financial crash.”

Levels & Events to Watch Next

At the time of writing on Thursday morning, BTC trades at $118,947. Its intraday high was $122,052. It plunged from this level to the day’s low of $118,364, before slightly recovering to the current level.

That said, the price is still up 4% over the past seven days, from the lowest point of $112,920. It’s also up 0.9% in a month.

The market is still heavily influenced by the macroeconomic elements, particularly those coming from the US. While the fears surrounding tariffs and economic health subsided, markets have now turned their attention to this week’s impending economic data.

That said, depending on various incoming signals, Bitcoin may surge again towards its all-time high of $122,838. Otherwise, it may drop to $110,720, followed by a move to the $108,000 level.

Ethereum is currently trading at $4,292. It saw choppier trade than BTC over the past day. It decreased to $4,177 before surging to $4,346, after which it dropped to $4,196 and then recovered to the current level.

Overall, ETH is still pushing towards its previous ATH of $4,878, seen in November 2021. Over the past week, it appreciated 17%, as well as 46% in a month, outperforming BTC on both of these fronts.

The coin’s rally came with an increase in the number of companies holding it on their books. Twenty-four new entities added ETH, bringing the total to 64.

Also, per onchain data from Glassnode, traders who have held ETH for less than 155 days are realizing gains faster than long-term investors, indicating near-term pullback expectations.

Meanwhile, the crypto market sentiment has dropped slightly today, but still stayed in the greed zone. The crypto fear and greed index stands at 60 today, down from 62 seen yesterday.

While today’s correction was expected following the latest rally, there is a healthy dose of caution moving into the market.

Furthermore, the US BTC spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded their fourth green day in a row. Monday saw inflows of $178.15 million, bringing the total net inflow to $54.6 billion.

Five funds recorded flows, and all of them were positive. BlackRock leads this list by far with $138.25 million. The second-highest inflow is Grayscale’s $14.24 million.

At the same time, the US ETH ETFs broke all their positive flow records with a whopping $1.02 billion recorded on Monday. The previous all-time high was $726.74 million seen on 16 July this year.

The total net inflow stands at $10.83 billion as of August 11.

Eight of the nine ETFs recorded flows, all of them positive. The highest among these is BlackRock’s $639.79 million, followed by Fidelity’s $276.9 million.

Meanwhile, Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed investment company Metaplanet bought an additional 518 BTC, bringing the total holdings to 18,113 BTC.

Metaplanet is following its “555 Million Plan,” aiming to purchase 210,000 BTC, or ca 1% of the supply, by the end of 2027.

Quick FAQ

The crypto market fell over the past day, and the stock market closed lower on its previous day of trading. At Monday’s closing time, the S&P 500 was down by 0.25%, the Nasdaq-100 decreased by 0.36%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 0.45%. The stock market rise followed the lowest weekly performance in several months. As US investors’ concerns about tariffs and the health of the economy subsided, they now turn their focus to the upcoming economic data.

Pullbacks that follow rallies towards new all-time highs are typical and expected. Commonly, they don’t last long when there is more room for prices to rise.

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