Polkadot's price has been under significant pressure today, driven by a broader sell-off in the cryptocurrency market. The downturn is largely attributed to a risk-off sentiment that has gripped global markets, particularly affecting tech stocks and cryptocurrencies. This sentiment was exacerbated by the emergence of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, which has raised concerns about U.S. technological dominance and led to a sharp decline in Nasdaq futures. The tech-heavy index's futures dropped over 3.5%, with major tech stocks like NVIDIA seeing substantial pre-market losses. This has created a ripple effect across the crypto market, pulling down Polkadot along with other digital assets.
The negative market sentiment has been further fueled by a bearish shift in Bitcoin's funding rates, indicating a net bias for short positions. This shift suggests that traders are anticipating further declines in cryptocurrency prices, adding to the downward pressure on Polkadot. "Today’s sell-off comes after President Donald Trump last week gave the green light to a working group on crypto policy that notably stopped short of confirming that the US would set up a bitcoin reserve," noted Petr Kozyakov, co-founder and CEO at Mercuryo. This uncertainty, combined with the tech sector's struggles, has contributed to the challenging environment for cryptocurrencies today.
Polkadot has experienced a 5.80% decline today, with its price currently at $5.825410. The cryptocurrency reached a high of $6.202750 and a low of $5.585008 during the day's trading.