Bitcoin fell for a fourth straight day to around $63,100, its lowest since $60,200 on February 6, according to CoinDesk data.
The latest downward trend coincides with investors’ risk aversion in global markets. US stocks lost ground this week and the dollar index (DXY) rose 0.5% since Asian hours on Monday.
BTC is down 2.1% since midnight UTC and 4.7% over the past 24 hours. A break below $60,000 would trigger a new round of liquidations 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. has lost 11.5% of its value in the last 24 hours with a 3% drop since midnight UTC, while SUI, JUP, PUMP and WLFI have all lost more than 2%.
Analysts describe the price action as a “slow purge” typical of previous cryptocurrency bear markets, although it is worth noting that the average cryptocurrency Relative Strength Index (RSI) indicator is giving an “oversold” signal, meaning there is potential for a rebound into the $60,000 region.
Positioning of derivative products
- Notional open interest in the cryptocurrency futures market fell more than 4% to $92.5 billion, the lowest since early April 2025. The relentless slide shows continued risk reduction from investors, who are withdrawing their capital from leveraged products.
- Exchanges liquidated $360 million in leveraged bets in 24 hours. Bullish or long bets were hit the hardest, accounting for over 90% of total liquidations on several exchanges, including Hyperliquid, HTX, Aster, Bitmex and Bitfinex.
- Some traders look to short Bitcoin in a weak market. This is evident from the increase in global open interest for Bitcoin futures to 690.89K BTC, the highest since February 6. The same goes for ether.
- Annualized funding rates for perpetuals tied to major tokens remain below zero, indicating a bias toward short and bearish positions. TRX and TRON have funding rates as low as -35%, a sign that the market is slowly becoming overcrowded with shorts.
- The 30-day implied volatility indices for Bitcoin and Ether reached two-week highs, indicating further market nervousness.
- On Deribit, Bitcoin and Ether puts trade at a volatility premium of over 10 to calls through expiration at the end of March. This shows increased concerns about a prolonged drop in prices.
- Block flows featured spreads and BTC sale overlaps. A put spread is a bearish strategy with a limited profit and loss profile. Straddles represent a bet on volatility.
Symbolic discussion
- With the exception of PIPPIN (PIPPIN), an AI-related token that has doubled year-to-date after rising 7.7% in the past 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% year-to-date, making it the worst-performing benchmark.
- Layer 1 Token Aptos , And all fell 5% to 8% in the past 24 hours as the altcoin market struggles with a lack of liquidity and relentless waves of selling pressure.
