What Is Causing the Crypto Prices to Tumble and Gold to Rise?

What Is Causing the Crypto Prices to Tumble and Gold to Rise? AllinCrypto January 30, 2026

Cryptocurrencies and ETFs experienced one of the biggest single-day drawdowns and outflows of the year so far, with investors pulling roughly $1.2B in liquidations.

Bitcoin slid to a nine-month low with some exchanges reporting a drop to lows of $79k as the selling pressure affected the whole market, but funds managed by the largest issuers absorbed the bulk of redemptions.

The sharp reversal followed weeks of relatively stable and some majorly positive ETF inflows, especially into altcoins such as XRP and Solana. What’s causing the dump in crypto prices?

Equity and USD Weakness Drive Crypto Panic and Gold Surge

As Bitcoin broke below its recent trading range of around $89k, ETF investors reduced exposure simultaneously and accelerated the downside pressure, amplifying the volatility across the whole market.

Crypto heatmap via coin360
Crypto heatmap via coin360

Markets may be pricing upcoming changes at the Federal Reserve after Jerome Powell chose not to cut interest rates on Jan 29. Following this, Trump announced that his pick for the new FED chair will happen on Jan 30.

Crypto market liquidations
Crypto market liquidations

Compounding on the pressure, Bitcoin’s somewhat close correlation with US equities may be strengthening with investors moving into a risk-off posture, deciding to dump capital into precious metals like gold and silver, which have both pushed to new all-time highs almost every day.

US Dollar Index DXY
US Dollar Index DXY

On Jan 27, the US Dollar Index (DXY) fell sharply to 95.56 as industry experts and analysts noted the weakening of the dollar. Gold pushed to over $5000 towards the end of January, with silver covering three digits.

Speaking on CNBC, Tom Lee stated that strong rises in precious metals usually correlate with a delayed push in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

When that price push will come to crypto, nobody really knows, but at the moment, gold is outperforming Bitcoin over a five-year outlook.

GOLD XAU prices
GOLD XAU prices

Crypto Liquidations Surge as ETF Flows Reverse

Rapid ETF outflows coincided with huge spikes in liquidations across crypto markets from centralized exchanges, wiping out over $1.6 billion in leveraged positions.

Similar to the October 10 deleveraging event, which wiped $19 billion out of the market, many investors still believe that the market has yet to fully recover from the October blues.

Until macro uncertainty eases, ETF inflows and outflows are likely to remain a pressure point for crypto prices.

In the meantime, Binance has stated it will utilize $1B from ‘SAFU’ reserves to prop up Bitcoin‘s price. If the token falls to $80K, additional capital will be deployed by the exchange.

The post What Is Causing the Crypto Prices to Tumble and Gold to Rise? first appeared on AllinCrypto.

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