Cryptocurrency prices are leveling out, while some traders are still wary.

On Monday, most cryptocurrencies traded lower, though selling pressure appeared to be easing compared to the previous week. Bitcoin has dropped roughly 2% in the last 24 hours, compared to a 3% loss in ether and a 6% reduction in Solana's SOL token.

Alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) underperformed on Monday, indicating that traders are still wary. Because of their greater risk profile, altcoins tend to decrease more than bitcoin during market downturns.

Some leveraged traders have lost money as a result of recent market falls. For example, nearly 109,000 traders were forced to liquidate their positions in the last 24 hours as bitcoin fell below $40,000 for the first time since September.

"The volatility markets do not appear to be reflecting "severe concern," according to a Telegram post from crypto trading firm QCP Capital on Monday. "In fact, our volatility desk witnessed a lot of call purchasing demand over the weekend, notably in BTC and ETH," QCP noted.

Latest prices

• Bitcoin (BTC): $41,714, -1.77%

• Ether (ETH): $3,082, -3.60%

• S&P 500: $4,670, -0.14%

• Gold: $1,800, +0.18%

• 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.77%

Outflows from crypto funds have reached new highs.

Investors in hedge funds have remained negative as cryptocurrency prices have fallen. In the seven days leading up to January 7, record weekly withdrawals from digital asset investment products reached $207 million.

According to CoinDesk's Lyllah Ledesma, the latest round of redemptions adds to market pressure that began in mid-December, bringing the four-week outflow total to $465 million.

Past week, bitcoin-focused investment funds had withdrawals of $107 million, while ether-focused funds saw outflows of $39 million, bringing the total outflows in the last four weeks to $180 million.

A collection of alternative cryptocurrencies

Avalanche with a polygonal price bounce: During the Asian trading session, Avalanche (AVAX) and Polygon (MATIC) both increased roughly 4%, but have since fallen over the last 24 hours. On Monday, most cryptocurrencies underperformed bitcoin, showing that crypto traders had a lesser stomach for risk.

In the Solana metaverse, the US has an office: a cryptocurrency exchange. Binance. The United States is constructing a presence in Portals, a metaverse platform based on the Solana blockchain. Companies have been racing into open metaverses based on Ethereum, such as The Sandbox and Decentraland. According to CoinDesk's Shaurya Malwa, Portals appears to be an early choice for capturing metaverse frenzy on the high-speed Solana blockchain. More information may be found here.

On the Cardona blockchain, a tree-planting milestone has been reached: The Cardano Foundation's CEO, Frederik Gregaard, announced on Twitter on Sunday that the organization has accomplished its objective of planting one million trees. Each time Cardano's ADA money is traded for a TREE token, Veritree, Cardano's partner, plants a tree. During "redemption days," TREE may be exchanged for digital trees and non-fungible tokens (NFT). According to CoinDesk's Shaurya Malwa, the action is part of Cardano's larger aim to become a climate-positive blockchain. More information may be found here.