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The crypto market cap fell 2% on Tuesday as fears of an impending U.S. government shutdown continued to rattle investors.<\/p>\n
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Bitcoin (BTC), the world\u2019s largest crypto asset, saw-sawed between the $68,400 to $71,000 range before settling at $69,400 at press time, down 2.4% over the day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ethereum (ETH) was down 1.2%, hovering just over the $2,000 mark while extending its weekly losses to 12%. XRP (XRP) remained neutral at $1.44 while BNB (BNB), Solana (SOL), and Dogecoin (DOGE) were down by 1% each. These losses together led the market to fall by 2% to $2.44 trillion at the time of writing.<\/p>\n
As prices dropped, they triggered liquidations from leveraged crypto markets. Data<\/a> from CoinGlass shows that nearly $300 million was liquidated from the crypto market over the past day, with the greater proportion of it coming from long liquidations.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Crypto prices remained shaky on Tuesday as investors remain on edge over a potential partial U.S. government shutdown slated to commence on Friday, Feb. 13, over disputes surrounding federal budget allocations.<\/p>\n Investors are likely recalling how the previous 43-day shutdown from Oct. 1 to Nov. 12, 2025, created a data vacuum for the Federal Reserve and thus prevented the central banking body from accurately evaluating interest rates.<\/p>\n As per data from the predictions market Polymarket, the odds<\/a> of the government shutdown rose sharply from 59% to 76% earlier today before settling at 69% when writing.<\/p>\n Aside from complicating future Fed rate cuts, the shutdown could also lead to a delay in the progress of a highly awaited crypto market structure bill, the Clarity Act, which has faced delay previously with the closely divided Senate, which postponed the markup proceedings to a currently unspecified date.<\/p>\n The delay in this crucial bill has been eroding the risk appetite of investors who are growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of regulatory certainty.<\/p>\n At the same time, crypto investors are concerned over the recent nomination of Kevin Warsh, who is considered by many to be hawkish for monetary policies.<\/p>\n The crypto market has also tanked as investors remain in a state of panic, as tech-heavy U.S. stocks showed weakness recently, while precious metals such as gold and silver, and U.S. bonds continued to gain strength as safe-haven assets.<\/p>\n Cryptocurrencies have historically often been the first to be impacted by weakness in U.S. equities, as they share a high correlation with the broader technology sector.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the lack of consistent institutional demand has also played a key role in keeping retail appetite in check. Per data from SoSoValue<\/a>, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded only $145 million in net inflows on Monday, marking a 60% drop from the inflows recorded last Friday.<\/p>\n The decline in flows also comes as the netflow for the month remains negative with outflows of $173 million. It also follows three back-to-back months of outflows where over $6 billion exited the funds.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nCrypto market fell amid looming government shutdown fears<\/h1>\n
Bearish market sentiment<\/h2>\n