Tech selloff led by Nvidia weighs heavily on major cryptocurrencies

Nov 9, 2026, 6:42 a.m. EST

3 min read

Only five out of the leading 100 digital assets ranked by market capitalization have managed to increase by 1% or higher throughout the previous 24 hours. Such is the current condition of the market today.

These specific tokens consist of ARB, RNDR, PEPE, QNT, and GT. The vast majority of other assets, which include prominent market leaders such as bitcoin BTC$74,397.27, ether ETH$2,112.51, XRP, and solana (SOL), remain in negative territory, whereas a small group is showing flat to slightly positive movement.

This predominantly risk-averse sentiment can be attributed to expectations of a more severe downturn in technology equities. NVDA, the artificial intelligence benchmark and largest equity by market capitalization, is already trading down more than 4% during pre-market hours. The catalyst: On Sunday, Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang acknowledged having an affair with a suspected Chinese spy, prompting the company to initiate a formal inquiry into the situation.

Derivatives Positioning

• Positions closed: Futures trading activity across the crypto market climbed by over 200% to reach $180 billion over the past 24 hours, rebounding from the weekend lull. Meanwhile, open interest (OI) contracted by 3% down to approximately $127 billion. This indicates that market participants liquidated holdings and capital departed from the system. Total liquidations surged to $1.1 billion. The taker buy-sell volume ratio, which monitors market orders, tilts toward selling at 51.5%.
• BTC funding still leans bullish: BTC open interest decreased by 0.2% alongside a 2.2% price decline, pointing toward capital inflows amid the pullback. Liquidations accounted for $305 million. Funding rates remain positive though lower than Thursday’s levels, signifying that long positions continue to compensate shorts, albeit at a reduced rate.
• Ether funding flips: ETH open interest shrank by 6.7% alongside a 5.9% price drop, demonstrating capital flight. Liquidations totaled $498 million, surpassing those of BTC despite holding half the open interest volume. Funding rates have reversed from positive on Thursday into negative territory, meaning short positions are now paying longs.
• Capital outflows from top altcoins: Futures open interest for the privacy-focused coin ZEC contracted by 9.7% while its price fell 4.5%, and XRP saw an open interest drop of 9.2% coupled with a 6.5% decline. A greater reduction in open interest compared to price movement suggests capital is exiting the sector.
• Volume spike in NVDA perps: Trading activity for Binance-listed NVDA perpetual contracts escalated by upwards of 200% past the $500 million mark following the admission by CEO Jensen Huang regarding an affair with an alleged Chinese spy. The organization has launched an investigation into the matter.
• Volatility returns: Bitcoin’s one-week implied volatility, representing anticipated price fluctuations among options traders, elevated to roughly 43% from Thursday’s reading of roughly 33%. Ether’s metric climbed to approximately 60% from about 46%. The one-week skew, denoting the additional cost for put options relative to calls, returned to roughly 13% for bitcoin compared to around 2%. Ether’s skew stands near 15% up from approximately 7%. The appetite for downside hedging has rebounded following the price drop.
Puts lead: Four out of the six most heavily traded bitcoin options agreements are put options with strike prices between $70,000 and $72,000. Ether’s activity is divided evenly three and three, featuring a December put option at the $1,900 strike as its most active contract.

Token Talk

• Ether ETH$2,112.51 dropped by 5.9% to trade at $2,100 after finishing Sunday beneath its 200-day moving average for the initial time since August 18. It accounted for roughly $501 million out of the overall $1.16 billion in crypto liquidations recorded over the past day, primarily affecting long positions.
• XRP ranked among the poorest performers among major alternative cryptocurrencies, surrendering 7.3% of its worth during this timeframe amidst a wider market correction.
• Categorically speaking, payments-oriented cryptocurrencies experienced the heaviest impact from the downturn, shedding above 5% as a segment, compared to 3.5% for decentralized finance tokens, 2.35% for meme coins, and merely 0.12% for layer-two assets.
• Arbitrum ARB$0.1778 is actually defying the broader market selloff, gaining in excess of 5% through the 24-hour cycle as on-chain activity tied to real-world assets continues to expand.