Bitcoin slides below $63,000 as leverage liquidations hammer the digital credit market

The day's main driver was a record selloff in the digital credit market, triggered by leverage liquidations — forced closures of borrowed positions that cascade into broader selling as prices fall and margin calls mount. Strive CEO Matt Cole publicly attributed the move to this mechanism, and the damage was visible across the board: Stellar fell 9.47%, Hyperliquid dropped 7.07%, and Zcash shed nearly 5%. Bitcoin broke below $63,000, erasing the week's recovery, while Ethereum fell 3.05% to $1,687. The broader context is a risk-off environment. When leveraged positions unwind in size, traders sell whatever they can — not just the assets at the center of the problem. That dynamic explains why assets with no direct connection to digital credit markets still fell 3–5% today. The Fear & Greed index at 14 reflects how quickly sentiment has deteriorated; readings below 20 are rare and typically mark periods of genuine market stress. The one notable exception was TRON, which edged up 0.19% — a rounding-error move, but enough to stand out on a day when almost nothing held its ground. Ondo US Dollar Yield, a tokenized yield product, also gained fractionally as some traders rotated toward assets that carry a yield component rather than pure price exposure.

• –Franklin Templeton filed for ETFs that would automatically reinvest stock dividends into Bitcoin — a structure that, if approved, would create a steady institutional buying channel tied to dividend payouts.
• –Microsoft identified malware that hijacks crypto wallets and spreads via USB drives, a reminder that hardware-based attack vectors remain active threats to self-custody users.
• –A former Ethereum Foundation contributor warned that Ethereum's core development could face a funding crisis within nine months, raising questions about the protocol's long-term maintenance capacity.