Bitcoin fell from above $65,000 to close just above $63,200 last week, recording an approximately 3.2% decline as the wider cryptocurrency market finished the second week of August in negative territory.
The leading cryptocurrency briefly dropped below $62,500 on 14 August before recovering, limiting its weekly loss to less than 3.2%. That followed a modestly positive first week of August, when Bitcoin had gained more than 3%.
The decline came despite some support for global markets from the latest inflation report and a pause in hostilities in the Middle East. In Bitcoin’s case, sentiment was affected by news that Strategy had sold 1,690 bitcoins during the previous week.
Strategy said it intended to resume buying, but the announcement did not restore Bitcoin to its pre-sale levels. The fall in the value of the largest cryptocurrency removed more than $30bn from its market capitalisation and left the wider market with only limited gains by the middle of August.
Bitcoin had already moved below $64,000 on 10 August after reaching an intraday high of $65,416. The sharp reversal erased those earlier gains.
XRP and major altcoins fall
Several high-cap altcoins also lost ground during the week, with XRP among the main fallers after declining by almost 4%.
XRP, which was one of the leading performers earlier in the year, has continued to weaken. It briefly fell below $1 on 11 August during a sell-off, although it later recovered that level. Even so, the digital asset remains 69% below its January 2025 peak of close to $3.30.
The decline has come while Ripple continues to announce new partnerships and usage of the digital asset increases. Some market observers nevertheless expect XRP to fall further, with $0.95 identified as the next potential target.
XRP was not the biggest loser among top-tier digital assets. Cardano’s ADA, which had risen from late July, fell by 10.6% to record the steepest decline in that group. Bitcoin Cash dropped 6%, while Zcash lost 5.6%. Stellar’s XLM declined 3.2%, WBT fell 3%, and Ethereum finished 2.1% lower.
LINK and WLFI outperform
Broad market liquidations pushed most digital assets lower, but several tokens moved against the trend.
Chainlink (LINK) led the stronger performers, rising 13%. Its advance followed a bullish forecast from Standard Chartered, which predicted that LINK could reach $200 by the end of 2030.
Hyperliquid (HYPE) also attracted buying interest, climbing 5.8% from $54.73 to $57.90 over six days.
Among mid-cap and utility tokens, World Liberty Financial (WLFI) posted a 15% gain. Worldcoin (WLD) rose 11.4%, while OKB increased by 10.9%.
Overall, the number of declining tokens outweighed the gainers. As a result, total cryptocurrency market capitalisation fell from almost $3tn on 10 August to $2.22tn at the time of writing on 16 August at 13:45 EST.
