What started as a positive day for crypto markets quickly reversed during the U.S. session with bitcoin BTC sliding below $103,000 from the $106,500 level just hours earlier.

At press time, bitcoin had pared some of the losses, returning to $103,200, down 1.2% over the past 24 hours.

Other large cryptocurrencies endured steeper declines. Ethereum's ether ETH saw a sharp 4.5% drop in just 90 minutes to as low as $2,372, with trading volume spiking to nearly 800,000 ETH, nearly eight times the average hourly volume, per CoinDesk data. Solana's SOL SOL, dogecoin DOGE and Cardano's ADA ADA were 3%-5% lower over the same period.

The volatility burst caught many traders off-guard, liquidating about $450 million in derivatives trading positions on centralized exchanges across all digital assets, CoinGlass data shows. Some $387 million of liquidations were tied to long positions that bet on profiting from rising prices.

While macro risks abound — among them the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran — there was no immediate external reason for the sudden price swing. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 indexes only inched lower during the day.

Bitcoin at stalemate

Zooming out, BTC continues to trade within a sideways range between $100,000 and $110,000, consolidating just below its all-time record level.

"The mixed view of whether BTC will go above $110,000 again or drop into the $90,000 area doesn’t surprise me at all and underscores the overall indecision people and markets feel," said James Toledano, chief operating officer at Unity Wallet.

"The present BTC stalemate reflects a market caught between bullish long-term sentiment and short-term macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty," he added.

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