The cryptocurrency market is navigating a challenging weekend, characterized by an uncomfortable setup where assets feel heavier than the previous day. This sentiment is largely driven by a substantial round of $1.11 billion in liquidations across major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). Liquidity failed to recover following a midweek sell-off, and derivatives remained overloaded, resulting in charts that primarily reflected forced positioning rather than fresh narratives or directional conviction.

XRP presented a stark example of market distress, exhibiting an 800% long-side liquidation imbalance. CoinGlass data revealed $24.46 million in long liquidations compared to just $3.04 million in short liquidations over a 24-hour period. This imbalance indicates that long positions were accumulated at an inopportune moment and subsequently wiped out in a single sweep. XRP's price action mirrored this wipeout, as it continuously slid into the low $2.28-$2.30 range, with every minor bounce to $2.32-$2.33 being met with immediate selling pressure. Intraday charts displayed a series of lower highs, signifying a complete lack of appetite to counter the selling or absorb the liquidations. Heatmaps confirmed this structure, showing a dominant green cluster on the long side for XRP's 24-hour activity, with minimal short activity. This was not indicative of organic distribution but rather leveraged positions being removed from the system, with the chart simply following the metrics. If market softness persists, XRP may test the liquidity shelf positioned under $2.27, a zone yet to be tapped.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) experienced one of the most brutal percentage moves of the day, with its market capitalization dropping approximately $420 million—from $5.8 billion to $5.4 billion—in a clean 24-hour sweep. There was no distinct catalyst or isolated event; instead, it was a simple chain reaction initiated by Bitcoin falling below $100,000. As major cryptocurrencies flushed leverage, SHIB followed the prevailing pressure without resistance. The chart showed SHIB sliding into the $0.000009 pocket, lingering there before a slight push back toward $0.0000092. However, the lack of trading volume suggested this rebound was not driven by accumulation but rather a market bounce after a forced unwind. Liquidity for SHIB remains concentrated within a narrow $0.00000900-$0.00000930 corridor, requiring either a fresh liquidation spike or a new influx of buyers to break out, neither of which is currently visible. With BTC still in a corrective phase, SHIB's movements remain largely tied to broader market flows.

Bitcoin's slip below $100,000 triggered another round of speculative decoding concerning posts from Binance founder CZ. BTC was trading around $96,600-$97,300 after failing to maintain an earlier morning bounce. CoinGlass data indicated that the long-side liquidation stack for BTC hit $472.45 million over 24 hours, significantly dwarfing the $37.51 million in short liquidations. Amidst this, CZ posted: