🔔 BTC and ETH may suffer their largest weekly declines since the FTX collapse, with cryptocurrency market capitalization losing $390 billion. According to CoinDesk, during a brutal week for crypto markets, Bitcoin fell 17.3% this week and Ethereum dropped 22%, with both assets potentially recording their largest weekly declines since November 2022. Data from TradingView shows that the digital asset market lost approximately $390 billion in market cap this week, with total market capitalization hovering just above $2 trillion—less than half of the nearly $4.2 trillion peak seen in October. The damage extends beyond prices: according to CoinGlass, around $7 billion in leveraged positions across digital assets were liquidated this week, with the heaviest selling pressure occurring on Monday and Friday. Of these, roughly $5.7 billion were long positions. This decline resulted from a confluence of negative catalysts. Early in the week, Strategy disclosed it had sold Bitcoin for the first time in nearly four years—a small transaction of just 32 BTC, worth approximately $2.5 million. However, the sale unsettled investors who had long viewed Michael Saylor’s company as a consistent source of demand. Investors now question whether Strategy may need to sell more Bitcoin to repay debt tied to its growing preferred shares. Meanwhile, assets under management in Bitcoin ETFs have continued to shrink. Vetle Lunde, head of K33 Research, noted earlier this week that some outflows reflect a broader trend of capital shifting from crypto to AI investments. Concerns that AI could expose vulnerabilities in crypto protocols have further intensified this pressure. Zcash (ZEC), one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies earlier this year, plunged over 40% after researchers discovered a critical flaw in its privacy system using Anthropic’s latest AI model. The final blow came Friday with stronger-than-expected U.S. employment data, forcing investors to reassess the Fed’s next move. Earlier this year, markets anticipated rate cuts; now, they increasingly expect rate hikes if inflation remains elevated. U.S. Treasury yields surged, and the Nasdaq 100 posted its worst single-day performance since the April 2025 tariff-driven sell-off, ending its record-breaking rally—the primary driver of Wall Street’s optimism this year. https://t.co/RYDiwvO7d0