Altcoin
Solana, Dogecoin and XRP Slide as Late-February Selloff Deepens
28 Feb 2026, 10:00
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Solana dropped 6.7%, Dogecoin fell 5.1% and XRP lost 4% in a weekend selloff as Bitcoin retreated to about $65,700 amid deteriorating risk sentiment.
Major altcoins extended their February declines over the final weekend of the month, with Solana dropping 6.7%, Dogecoin falling 5.1% and XRP losing 4%, as Bitcoin retreated to around $65,700 after a brief attempt earlier in the week to reclaim the $70,000 level. The renewed selling capped a difficult month for crypto markets that had already seen Bitcoin crash below $60,000 in early February before staging a partial recovery.
Deteriorating sentiment in US equity markets played a significant role in the weekend decline, with weakness in traditional risk assets spilling over into crypto in a pattern that had become increasingly common as institutional participation in digital assets grew. The correlation between crypto and broader equity market sentiment, particularly for high-beta names in sectors like technology and growth stocks, had strengthened noticeably through the first two months of 2026, making crypto markets more sensitive to the same macro forces moving traditional markets.
The altcoin-specific weakness was notable given how each of the three assets had performed earlier in the year. XRP in particular had posted a nearly 29% weekly gain in early January, while Solana had continued attracting real-world integration announcements and network usage growth even amid price weakness. The late-February pullback suggested that even assets with positive fundamental developments underway were not immune to the broader risk-off pressure sweeping through markets during the period.
By the close of February, the combination of the earlier Bitcoin crash, the tariff-driven selloff, and this final weekend of altcoin weakness had left the crypto market notably lower than where it had started the year, setting up March as a critical test of whether the market could find a durable floor or whether the selling pressure from January and February would continue to extend into the second quarter.
Traders described the weekend price action as thin and disorderly, conditions that tend to exaggerate moves in either direction, a dynamic that made the weekend's losses feel sharper in the moment than the underlying selling pressure alone might have justified.
Deteriorating sentiment in US equity markets played a significant role in the weekend decline, with weakness in traditional risk assets spilling over into crypto in a pattern that had become increasingly common as institutional participation in digital assets grew. The correlation between crypto and broader equity market sentiment, particularly for high-beta names in sectors like technology and growth stocks, had strengthened noticeably through the first two months of 2026, making crypto markets more sensitive to the same macro forces moving traditional markets.
The altcoin-specific weakness was notable given how each of the three assets had performed earlier in the year. XRP in particular had posted a nearly 29% weekly gain in early January, while Solana had continued attracting real-world integration announcements and network usage growth even amid price weakness. The late-February pullback suggested that even assets with positive fundamental developments underway were not immune to the broader risk-off pressure sweeping through markets during the period.
By the close of February, the combination of the earlier Bitcoin crash, the tariff-driven selloff, and this final weekend of altcoin weakness had left the crypto market notably lower than where it had started the year, setting up March as a critical test of whether the market could find a durable floor or whether the selling pressure from January and February would continue to extend into the second quarter.
Traders described the weekend price action as thin and disorderly, conditions that tend to exaggerate moves in either direction, a dynamic that made the weekend's losses feel sharper in the moment than the underlying selling pressure alone might have justified.