Cryptocurrency markets traded mostly lower on Monday, as bitcoin remained relatively resilient above $78,000 while Ethereum, XRP, Solana and other major tokens fell amid renewed U.S.-Iran tensions and growing expectations that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates in September.
At around 9:04 GMT, bitcoin was trading at approximately $78,390.98, up 0.39 percent over 24 hours.
Ethereum fell 1.5 percent to about $2,421.21, leaving the second-largest cryptocurrency down around 0.9 percent over seven days. XRP declined 2.7 percent to $1.36, extending its weekly loss to 8.4 percent, while Solana dropped around 2.8 percent to $102.14.
The broader cryptocurrency market was valued at approximately $2.69 trillion, with about $68.6 billion in 24-hour trading volume. Bitcoin dominance stood at 58.3 percent and Ethereum dominance at 10.9 percent.
Bitcoin shows resilience
Bitcoin’s comparatively limited decline stands out against weakness across global risk assets.
Brent crude climbed above $90 a barrel after U.S. forces struck Iranian missile systems on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz and Iran retaliated, reviving concerns over Gulf energy supplies and another potential inflation shock. Asian equities declined and U.S. and European futures also moved lower.
Bitcoin has nevertheless retained most of its powerful August rebound.
CoinDesk calculated that BTC was up roughly 23 percent during August, compared with gains of about 10 percent for gold, despite Friday’s post-Jackson Hole pullback.
That relative strength suggests the market is treating bitcoin differently from many smaller cryptocurrencies as institutional flows increasingly influence price behavior.
Fed risk increases
The largest macroeconomic headwind remains U.S. monetary policy.
Fed Chair Kevin Warsh used his Jackson Hole address on Friday to emphasize that the central bank’s 2 percent inflation objective is a firm target and that inflation remains considerably too high.
The Fed’s preferred PCE inflation measure stood at 3.7 percent year over year, while the six-month rate was running at 4.1 percent. Warsh said policymakers must be confident that underlying inflation is moving toward target clearly and quickly enough or they still have “work to do.”
Fed funds futures subsequently placed the probability of a September rate increase at around 58 percent, up sharply from before the speech.
Higher interest rates generally create a more challenging environment for cryptocurrencies because they increase returns available on cash and government bonds while tightening overall financial conditions.
Oil complicates crypto
The renewed Gulf escalation adds another layer to that monetary-policy problem.
Warsh specifically said the recent rise in commodity prices warrants attention when assessing upside inflation risks.
That means higher oil prices can hurt crypto indirectly even if geopolitical instability sometimes increases interest in decentralized assets.
The current transmission mechanism is increasingly clear: military escalation raises crude prices, higher energy costs add to inflation risks, persistent inflation increases expectations for Fed tightening and higher yields place pressure on speculative and growth-sensitive assets.
Bitcoin has so far absorbed that pressure better than most altcoins.
Altcoins retreat broadly
BNB fell around 1.2 percent to $686.07, while Hyperliquid declined 2.8 percent to about $80.53. Cardano dropped 2.7 percent to $0.1956, and Dogecoin traded around $0.0825 after extending its decline. Chainlink was near $11.2, Stellar around $0.177 and TRON close to $0.336.
Bitcoin Cash reversed earlier gains and traded around $245, while Litecoin was near $48.4, Hedera around $0.0743, Avalanche near $7.2 and Sui around $0.72.
Bittensor traded around $230, NEAR Protocol near $1.85, OKB around $111 and Aave close to $124. Shiba Inu was around $0.00000505, while Pepe weakened to roughly $0.00000355.
The weakness was far from universal.
Monero bucks decline
Privacy-focused Monero remained one of Monday’s strongest large-cap performers.
XMR traded around $500, up approximately 5.6 percent over 24 hours and 19 percent over seven days in CoinGecko’s latest individual-market reading.
Uniswap also resisted the selloff, rising around 3.5 percent to $5.07 and extending its weekly advance to more than 14 percent.
Mantle was an even stronger outlier, climbing approximately 11.1 percent to $0.573, according to CoinGecko.
Canton remained around $0.12, while Aster hovered near $0.69 and Sky traded around $0.069.
At the opposite end, Pump.fun extended its sharp pullback, trading around $0.00430 and falling roughly 12.2 percent over 24 hours.
Ethena was also under pressure near $0.15.
Cronos exploit weighs
Cronos traded around $0.0565 as investors assessed an exploit affecting Tectonic, the largest lending protocol on the Cronos blockchain.
Cronos validators halted the blockchain on Sunday after an attacker allegedly manipulated the thinly traded TONIC token roughly 100-fold before using the inflated collateral to borrow other assets.
The exploit has been estimated at around $75 million, although Tectonic had not confirmed the final loss as of Monday morning. Its total value locked fell from about $121.7 million on August 26 to roughly $3 million.
The incident represents a separate idiosyncratic risk for CRO rather than part of Monday’s wider macro-driven crypto selloff.
Stablecoins hold pegs
Major stablecoins remained close to $1.
Tether and USDC traded around $0.9999, Dai was near $1, Ethena USDe stood close to $0.9999, while PayPal USD and Ripple USD were also effectively at parity with the dollar. USDD was around $0.9994.
Gold-backed crypto assets followed physical bullion lower.
Tether Gold traded around $4,429, while PAX Gold was near $4,436, as traditional gold prices remained under pressure from higher U.S. rate expectations.
ETFs cushion bitcoin
Institutional fund flows remain one of the strongest sources of underlying support.
U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs attracted $337.6 million on August 24, $314.3 million on August 25, $232.2 million on August 26 and $242.3 million on August 27, before suffering a $201.9 million outflow on Friday.
That still left net inflows for the five-session week at approximately $924.5 million.
The Friday outflow ended a strong stretch of positive demand but did not erase the week’s substantial accumulation.
Cumulative net inflows into U.S. bitcoin ETFs stood at approximately $54.7 billion, according to Farside Investors.
Ether demand stays strong
Ether ETFs recorded an even cleaner five-day sequence.
Net inflows totaled $115.6 million Monday, $179.8 million Tuesday, $192.4 million Wednesday, $225.8 million Thursday and $102.1 million Friday, producing approximately $815.7 million in weekly inflows.
That institutional demand has not prevented ETH from falling Monday, but it provides a stronger medium-term backdrop than the token’s immediate price action suggests.
Solana ETFs also remained positive.
They attracted $33.5 million, $32.2 million, $3.6 million, $56.1 million and $17.3 million during the five sessions through Friday, generating approximately $142.7 million in weekly net inflows.
Jobs report next
The next major macro catalyst is Friday’s U.S. employment report.
August nonfarm payrolls are expected to increase by around 58,000 after falling by 23,000 in July, with several other labor-market releases arriving earlier in the week.
A stronger labor report could reinforce the case for a September Fed increase, keep Treasury yields elevated and create another test for crypto valuations.
Weaker employment data could reduce expectations for tightening and potentially revive demand for bitcoin and other risk assets.
