Crypto Markets Dip Amid Geopolitical Uncertainty

Crypto markets extended their weekend decline into Monday, Aug. 18, as investors reacted to uncertainty following a meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.

Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading at $116,500, down 1.2% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH) is currently trading at $4,368, down 3.6% over the past day, after flirting with its all-time high of $4,878 last week.

XRP dropped nearly 2% over the past 24 hours to trade at $3.06. Solana (SOL) dipped a steeper 5.6%, and is currently trading at $184.

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization dropped 2.4% over the past 24 hours to $3.99 trillion, according to CoinGecko. Bitcoin dominance is currently at 57.8% while Ethereum dominance stands at 13.1%.

In the past 24 hours, around $584 million in crypto positions were liquidated, including $503 million in long positions and $81 million in short positions, according to CoinGlass. ETH led with over $240 million in liquidations, followed by BTC at $132 million.

ETFs and ETPs

Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded $14 million in net outflows on Aug. 15, breaking a consecutive seven-day streak of net inflows and bringing cumulative total net inflows to $54.97 billion.

Meanwhile, ETH ETFs experienced $59 million in net outflows on Friday, disrupting a straight eight-day streak of net inflows and bringing total net inflows to $12.67 billion.

CoinShares’ weekly fund flows report noted that digital asset investment products recorded $3.75 billion in inflows last week, marking the fourth-largest weekly inflow on record and pushing total assets under management (AuM) to an all-time high of $244 billion.

Ethereum led the surge, attracting $2.87 billion – 77% of the total inflows – bringing year-to-date inflows to a record $11 billion, far surpassing Bitcoin on a proportional basis.

Other notable inflows included Solana with $176.5 million and XRP with $125.9 million. In contrast, Litecoin and Ton experienced outflows of $400,000 and $1 million, respectively.

Trump’s Talks

On Friday, President Trump and Russian President Putin held a nearly three-hour summit in Alaska to discuss a ceasefire in Ukraine. However, no agreement was reached, highlighting differences over the war.

Experts say this uncertainty spilled over into markets over the weekend and Monday, while observers note the summit raises questions about potential sanctions or future negotiations.

Adding to the uncertainty is Trump’s upcoming meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy today. At roughly 3 p.m. ET, Trump is scheduled to participate in a multilateral meeting with European leaders in the White House.