Bitcoin is trading around $65,000 as the trading week begins in Asia, down 4.4% according to market data from CoinDesk.
The move follows a sharp rise from the $67,000 range, where it traded over the weekend, and comes as on-chain data from Glassnode and CryptoQuant suggests the worst of the panic may have passed, but the broader structure remains under pressure.
Data from Glassnode shows that recent Bitcoin buyers were suffering heavy losses earlier this month. A smoothed 7-day measure of short-term holders’ profits and losses fell to -$1.24 billion per day on February 6, meaning new investors were collectively locking in more than $1 billion in losses each day.
The 7D-EMA of net realized profit and loss for recent investors plummeted to –$1.24 billion/day on February 6, before moderating to –$0.48 billion/day today.
While the intensity has cooled, the broader regime still indicates a market under pressure, with participants in the base-building phase… pic.twitter.com/00zibdP1om– glass node (@glassnode) February 23, 2026
Since then, that figure has improved to around –$480 million per day. In other words, panic selling has slowed but has not stopped completely. Recent buyers continue to sell at a loss overall, a dynamic that typically appears during bottom-building phases rather than during strong uptrends.
CryptoQuant exchange flow data paints a similar picture of changing market dynamics.
Data from CryptoQuant’s latest weekly report shows that the amount of bitcoins being sent to exchanges rose to approximately 60,000 BTC per day during the early February drop towards $60,000. That figure has since fallen to around 23,000 BTC on a smoothed 7-day basis, suggesting that the immediate sell-off has cooled.
But who does the sales has changed. CryptoQuant’s “whale exchange rate” has risen to 0.64, the highest level since 2015. That means almost two-thirds of the bitcoin flowing into exchanges comes from just the 10 largest deposits each day.
In other words, large holders, often called whales, represent the majority of the supply hitting the exchanges. The average size of each bitcoin deposit has also risen to levels last seen in mid-2022, reinforcing the idea that larger players, not small retail traders, are driving the current exchange activity.
Altcoins face broader distribution. Data from CryptoQuant shows that average daily deposits on altcoin exchanges have risen to around 49,000 so far in 2026, up from around 40,000 in Q4 2025. Historically, elevated deposit activity in altcoin tokens has coincided with higher volatility and lower risk appetite.
Liquidity reserves are also being reduced. USDT net inflows to exchanges have compressed sharply from a one-year high of $616 million in November to just $27 million, and briefly turned negative in late January, according to CryptoQuant. Stablecoin inflows typically expand during rallies. Its contraction suggests a reduction in marginal purchasing power.
Taken together, Glassnode’s loss realization data and CryptoQuant’s exchange metrics describe a market assimilating a capitulation event but not yet rebuilding strong demand.
As the week begins, the key question is whether the $65,000 level holds as a near-term pivot or if BTC remains in a prolonged base-building phase.
