bitcoin fell for the fourth straight day to around $63,100, its lowest level since $60,200 on Feb. 6, CoinDesk data shows.
The latest downward move coincides with investors’ risk aversion in global markets. US stocks have lost ground this week and the dollar index (DXY) is up 0.5% since Asian hours on Monday.
BTC is down 2.1% since midnight UTC and 4.7% in the last 24 hours. A break below $60,000 would trigger another round of sell-offs and a possible decline to $52,500, which is a historical support level dating back to 2021.
The altcoin market also looks battered and bruised on Tuesday. lost 11.5% of its value in the last 24 hours with a 3% drop since midnight UTC, while SUI, JUP, PUMP and WLFI lost more than 2%.
Analysts describe the price action as a “slow bleed” typical of previous cryptocurrency bear markets, although it is worth noting that the average cryptocurrency Relative Strength Index (RSI) indicator is showing an “oversold” signal, meaning there is potential for a bounce into the low $60,000 region.
Derivatives positioning
- Theoretical open interest in the cryptocurrency futures market fell more than 4% to $92.5 billion, the lowest level since early April 2025. The relentless decline shows that investors continue to de-risk, who are moving capital out of leveraged products.
- Exchanges have liquidated leveraged bets worth $360 million in 24 hours. Bullish or long bets were the hardest hit, accounting for more than 90% of the total liquidations on several exchanges, including Hyperliquid, HTX, Aster, Bitmex and Bitfinex.
- Some traders appear to be shorting bitcoins in a weak market. This is evident by the increase in global open interest in bitcoin futures to 690.89 thousand BTC, the highest level since February 6. The same goes for ether.
- Annualized funding rates on perpetual securities linked to major tokens remain below zero, indicating a bias toward bearish short positions. TRX and TRON have funding rates as low as -35%, a sign that the market is slowly becoming saturated with shorts.
- Bitcoin and Ethereum’s 30-day implied volatility indices have risen to two-week highs, indicating renewed nervousness in the market.
- On Deribit, bitcoin and ether puts are trading at a volatility premium of more than 10 to puts expiring at the end of March. This shows increased concern about a prolonged price sell-off.
- Block flows included BTC spreads and puts. A put spread is a bearish strategy with a limited profit and loss profile. Straddles represent a bet on volatility.
symbolic talk
- With the exception of pippin (PIPPIN), an AI-related token that has doubled since the beginning of the year after surging 7.7% in the last 24 hours, the altcoin market suffers from a lack of bullish catalysts.
- The decentralized finance (DeFi) market has lost less total value locked (TVL) than asset values have depreciated, suggesting that traders and investors are turning to stablecoins to mitigate risk.
- This has led to poor performance among DeFi tokens, with CoinDesk’s DeFi Select Index (DFX) losing 34.8% since the turn of the year, making it the worst-performing benchmark.
- Eligible Layer 1 Tokens , and all fell between 5% and 8% in the last 24 hours as the altcoin market grapples with a lack of liquidity and relentless waves of selling pressure.
