Bitcoin steadies at $67,000, faces critical juncture after sliding 9.5% in seven days

The recovery does little to mask a 9.5% weekly decline as U.S. stocks hit records highs, AI tokens rally and Coinbase's Ethena deal steals the spotlight.

What to know:

• Bitcoin's 0.7% recovery on Wednesday does little to paper over a 9.5% seven-day decline, leaving it back in the range it traded between February and April even as U.S. stocks push to record highs.
• Ethena (ENA) surged more than 20% in 24 hours after Coinbase announced it will integrate some of the platform's features into a new savings product for its 100 million users.
• Altcoin Season indicator hit 53/100, its highest since early March, though Humanity Protocol (H) served as a timely reminder of the risks, losing a quarter of its value in 24 hours as profit-taking set in following a 200% weekly rally.

Bitcoin BTC$67,172.14 recovered 0.7% on Wednesday, but remains at a crucial crossroads after a 9.5% decline since Sunday.

The largest cryptocurrency traded recently near $67,000, firmly in the middle of a range that persisted between February and April after a failed breakout attempt above $81,000 last month.

If bitcoin tumbles below $60,000 it would probably trigger a wave of liquidations and a possible slide to as low as $54,000, a level of support dating back to both 2024 and 2021.

Ether (ETH), meanwhile, trades at $1,870 after rising by 0.9% since midnight UTC, although the bounce comes after a selloff that saw it tumble to its lowest point since February.

The U.S. stock market rallied to record highs again on Tuesday. The divergence is starting to trigger concerns among some crypto investors because the two asset classes have historically moved in tandem.

AI crypto tokens continued to outperform the peers. NEAR, RENDER and FET all rose by around 9% on Wednesday following Tuesday's market-wide selloff.

Derivatives positioning

• Over $1.7 billion in leveraged crypto futures bets were liquidated in the past 24 hours, double the day-earlier amount.
• Most liquidations were bullish long positions after BTC slumped to $65,500 earlier today. The 24-hour volume surged 27% to nearly $300 million while cumulative industry-wide notional open interest (OI) fell just over 2%.
• The combination of large liquidations and falling open interest suggests aggressive crowding out of leveraged bullish plays and a reduction in new leveraged exposure.
• Open interest in bitcoin futures hovers at record highs above 800K BTC, up for the third straight day even as spot prices decline. That validates the downtrend and points to an influx of new shorts or bearish positioning.
• The seven-day OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta is negative, indicating bears are leading price action by actively shorting with market orders rather than using passive limit orders.
• Most major tokens, including ETH, ADA, SUI, XRP and SOL, also show negative seven-day and 24-hour cumulative volume deltas, signaling bear leadership across markets. Funding rates for these tokens remain slightly positive to slightly negative, implying the bearish side is not overcrowded and there’s room for further downside.
• Open interest in ZEC futures, however, has risen for the third straight day to 2.43 million ZEC as the token has gained 6.3% over seven days, bucking the broader malaise. ZEC also shows a positive 24-hour CVD alongside HYPE, indicating bullish sentiment.
• Fear is creeping back in. BTC and ETH 30-day implied volatility indices (BVIV and EVIV) jumped sharply Tuesday, posting their largest single-day gains since the Feb. 5 crash. Continued increases in the measure could presage further market pain.
• Options flow on Deribit shows traders paying up for downside protection. The one-week put-call skew climbed to nearly 20% early today, reflecting an outsized demand for puts. The most traded instruments in the past 24 hours were the $70K put expiring June 5 and the $55K put expiring June 26.
• In block flows, BTC call spreads and ETH put spreads were the most favored bets.

Token talk

• Ethena (ENA) is one of Wednesday's top-performing altcoins, rising by 9.3% since midnight UTC and more than 20% in 24 hours after Coinbase (COIN) said it will integrate Ethena features in a new savings account product.
• There was a notable gain for privacy coin zcash (ZEC). The token has risen 2% since midnight and 12% in the past 24 hours as it attempts to steer itself away from danger.
• CoinMarketCap's "Altcoin Season" indicator is now at 53/100, the highest since early March as investor appetite for high-risk altcoins remains despite weakness among the crypto majors.
• Humanity protocol (H) appears to be entering a corrective phase after it lost a quarter of its value in 24 hours following a 200% rally in the past week, with clear profit-taking occurring. Daily trading volume dropped 55% to $314 million.

More For You

Markets now imply a 66% chance bitcoin falls below $55,000 and a coin-flip chance of sub-$50,000 prices before year-end.

What to know:

• Prediction market traders see a strong chance chance that bitcoin falls below $55,000 this year, with meaningful odds it could drop under $40,000.
• Heavy outflows from U.S. bitcoin ETFs and investors’ growing preference for high-flying AI stocks are pressuring bitcoin, which has slumped toward $65,000.
• While traders are increasingly bearish...

Privacy-focused Zcash blockchain has not produced a block for four hours

37 minutes ago

UK's financial watchdog cracks down on Premier League crypto partnerships

41 minutes ago

Trezor says your crypto is safe after Ledger audit exposes a hardware flaw

55 minutes ago

DeFi won't win over big banks until it fixes its hacking problem, executives say

1 hour ago

Banks' survey says people don't want to rock the boat if stablecoin yield risks lending

2 hours ago

Franklin Templeton says Wall Street fears blockchain because it threatens its profits

3 hours ago

Bullish crypto bets lose $1.6 billion as ETH, SOL, DOGE drop 9%

6 hours ago

Bitcoin's 'fear gauge' surges nearly 20%, its biggest jump since Feb. 5 crash

5 hours ago

Bitcoin's slide to $66,000 is accelerating a shift into digital dollars

8 hours ago

Prediction market traders bet bitcoin's selloff has further to run

4 hours ago

Bullish XRP signals are piling up. The price keeps falling.

5 hours ago

In this article

BTCBTC$67,175.71◢3.38%