The cryptocurrency market is flashing deep bearish signals as the year-end approaches.
At the time of writing, data from TradingView showed that 75 of the top 100 coins by market capitalization were trading below both their 50-day and 200-day simple moving averages (SMAs), indicating overall weakness in the digital asset market.
This indicates capital flight from the crypto market in the wake of industry leading bitcoins slide to $87,000 from a record high of over $126,000 in early October.
The 50- and 100-day SMAs filter out daily noise and smooth out price action to spot broader momentum shifts, and traders and investors track them broadly. Think of these as guardrails: crossing below either signals underperformance relative to short- and long-term trends, often triggering intensified selling and accelerated declines.
In stark contrast, only 29 Nasdaq 100 stocks reflected this weakness, highlighting the still bullish market breadth of tech stocks. Bitcoin is known to closely track Nasdaq movements, amplifying downward swings during bearish phases.
The bear grip tightens
Among the 75 trading below the key averages are heavyweights like bitcoin, ether solana GDP and which collectively command 78% of crypto’s $3 trillion market cap.
In other words, the biggest coins flash red across the charts and drag the entire sector down like an anchor on a sinking ship.
These are the most liquid and institutionally traded assets that drive products like CME futures and spot ETFs. A bearish signal from them signals caution, making investors far less willing to chase risk into smaller, illiquid alternative cryptocurrencies.
This kind of weaker market breadth has historically brought more pain.
Only 8 coins oversold
Only eight of the top 100 coins qualify as oversold on the Relative Strength Index (RSI) when filtering out the 75 that are already trading below both their 50- and 200-day SMAs. These are PI, APT, ALGO, FLARE, VET, JUP, IP, KAIA.
This layered view sharpens the picture: the wide SMA break shows widespread downtrends, but adding the RSI oversold filter, which measures exhausted selling momentum, narrows it down to just 8. This means that most coins haven’t hit the panic bottom yet and have room to fall further.
Traders see this as bearish confirmation, pointing to more downside ahead of any meaningful bull revival.
The 14-day RSI measures recent price momentum on a scale of 0-100. Readings below 30 are said to represent oversold conditions, a sign that the asset has fallen a little too quickly and may consolidate or bounce. Meanwhile, readings above 80 represent overbought conditions.
