Bitcoin (BTC) started Monday in the red with a 2% drop over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk Indices data, leading to heaviness in the broader market as major tokens fell as much as 5%.

BTC touched resistance at $84,000 on Sunday, making it a key level to cross for chances of a run to the upside and trading at just over $83,300 in Asian afternoon hours Monday.

Majors such as XRP, Solana’s (SOL), Cardano’s (ADA) and dogecoin (DOGE) tanked as much as 5%, while BNB Chain’s (BNB) stood out as the only major in green with a 3% rise.

The crypto market has plateaued since last week’s sell-off due to the U.S. tariffs and deteriorating macroeconomic conditions. Concerns over a U.S. recession is growing due to Trump’s tariffs, traders say, with the likelihood of choppiness ahead as a correlation with U.S. equities staying intact.

Still, some see oncoming volatility in altcoins and memecoins amid a flat market regime.

“Trading volume has increased for altcoins after Trump’s World Liberty Financial bought MNT and AVAX, the latter of which was also part of an ETF application by VanEck,” Nick Ruck, director at LVRG Research, said in a Telegram message. “This may be a sign that traders and investors will focus on altcoins in the short term for better gains compared to large-cap coins like Bitcoin or Ethereum.”

Traders say the current sell-off could have been caused by an unwinding of ETF and spot-linked traders.

“The current belief is that the current sell-off is entirely driven by the massive ‘multi-strat’ hedge fund strategies that have dominated the macro space,” Augustine Fan, Head of Insights at SignalPlus, told CoinDesk in a Telegram message.

Multi-strategy (multi-strat) trades involve hedge funds using diverse tactics — like arbitrage, long-short positions, and leverage — to maximize returns across asset classes.

In bitcoin’s case, a popular multi-strat approach is the basis trade where funds buy spot BTC(often via ETFs) and short BTC futures to profit from price differences. This locks in low-risk gains when the spread is favorable.

When profits from basis trades shrink, due to tighter spreads or market shifts , funds exit positions, selling bitcoin and ETF shares en masse. This liquidation pressure likely amplified the sell-off, especially amid tariff-related volatility in the past week.

However, the “buy-the-dip” mentality persists among bulls.

“Equity valuations outside of the major large caps are relatively contained vs historical averages, and economic hard data is likely to outperform the rapid deterioration in soft data, so market consensus is that this remains a ‘buy the dip’ market while we work through the tariff volatility,” Fan added.

On Sunday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described asset market corrections as healthy, suggesting a greater tolerance for pain before the much-anticipated policy support or the so-called ‘Trump put» for the market, is enacted.

«I’ve been in the investment business for 35 years, and I can tell you that corrections are healthy, they are normal,” Bessent said Sunday on NBC’s Meet The Press, according to Bloomberg. “I‘m not worried about the markets. Over the long term, if we put good tax policy in place, deregulation and energy security, the markets will do great.”

Bessent’s comment contradicts popular belief that the Trump administration will quickly douse any fire stemming from the administration’s policy moves, particularly trade tariffs. President Donald Trump also recently clarified his stance, saying he is not looking at the stock market.

Wall Street’s tech-heavy index, Nasdaq, and the S&P 500 entered correction last week, falling over 10% from their February highs predominantly on concerns that Trump’s tariffs could slow economic growth while leading to sticky inflation.

Bitcoin (BTC), too, has taken a beating, down nearly 25% from the record highs above $109K in January, according to CoinDesk Indices data, tracking the risk-off on Wall Street and digesting disappointment over the absence of fresh BTC purchases under Trump’s strategic digital assets reserve plan.

The risk-off has revved up expectations of policy support from the government or the Federal Reserve (Fed), particularly in the crypto community.

However, Bessent’s take suggests that it may take longer to manifest or require more significant market declines before any action is taken. The Treasury secretary said last month that the Trump administration is focused on lowering the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which influences most long-term loans in the economy.

Meanwhile, Fed Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues stressed early this month that they are watching to see the “net effects” of Trump’s policies on the economy and are not in a hurry to cut rates.

Officials will meet for a rate review this week, with the decision due Wednesday.

Crypto exchange Kraken plans to launch a new colocation service in the coming weeks that will offer clients ultra-low latency trading, the company said in a press release Monday.

The service is for customers who need high speed execution, Kraken said, and traders operating out of London can expect latency of under a millisecond.

“Many exchanges offer colocation services, but Kraken’s approach is unique – we’re making it accessible to all partners and clients, not just institutions,» said Shannon Kurtas, head of exchange at Kraken, in the release.

Trading is all about speed, especially in volatile markets such as crypto, where a fraction of a second can make all the difference. Low latency services make use of sophisticated technology to give traders an edge by enabling them to execute orders in less than a millisecond.

«Colocation services in crypto are typically not widely accessible,» Kurtas said in emailed comments. «Kraken, however, has structured its offering to prioritize fairness and accessibility» and «our colocation service will be available to all clients, aligning with crypto’s core values of an open, fair, and transparent marketplace.»

«In addition to individuals and institutions who trade directly on Kraken, we also work with brokers, exchanges, and fintech companies that use our liquidity for their own products,» Kurtas said, and «these partners will also have access to colocation services once they become available.»

The exchange’s clients will have access to ultra-low latency trading from Kraken’s European data center by renting cloud compute from Beeks (BKS), a cloud computing and connectivity provider, that is listed in the U.K..

Select clients will be able to install physical hardware at Kraken’s data center, and access colocation services directly, the exchange said.

The crypto firm is considering launching an initial public offering (IPO) by the first quarter of 2026. The company believes the regulatory environment in the U.S. has sufficiently changed to make a public listing viable, Bloomberg reported earlier this month, citing people familiar with the matter.

Read more: SEC Plans to Drop Its Case Against Kraken, Firm Says