Bitcoin briefly drops below $70,000 as sell-off continues

bitcoin It briefly fell below $70,000 on Thursday, driven by a broad sell-off in risk assets.

The move, which occurred around 6:27 a.m. ET, was the first time Bitcoin has fallen below $70,000 since November 2024. Bitcoin bounced off this low and was trading around 70,453.68 at 6:40 a.m. ET, according to CoinMetrics data.

Some market watchers have suggested that $70,000 is an important level to watch and a break below it could trigger further declines for Bitcoin.

The decline follows a broad sell-off in technology stocks in the US on Wednesday, which was also reflected in cryptocurrencies.

Meanwhile, precious metals continue to fluctuate as silver loses value again and gold remains under pressure on Thursday.

Liquidations, in which traders’ positions are automatically sold when Bitcoin reaches a certain price, continue to put pressure on the markets. According to data from Coinglass, more than $2 billion in long and short positions in cryptocurrencies have been liquidated as of Thursday this week.

Bitcoin has been on a steady decline since reaching an all-time high above $126,000 in October. It is currently at a discount of around 40%, which is a record high with other cryptocurrencies. ether And XRPmuch more.

“[The] The straight line bull run that many people expected has not happened yet. “Bitcoin is no longer trading on the hype, it’s trading on pure liquidity and capital flows, which has lost some of that plot to the story,” Maja Vujinovic, CEO of digital assets at FG Nexus, told CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange.”

While many in the crypto market have noted that large institutional investors are supporting the price of bitcoin, it is these same participants who are currently selling.

“Institutional demand has reversed significantly,” CryptoQuant said in a report on Wednesday.

U.S. exchange-traded funds, which bought 46,000 bitcoins this time last year, will be net sellers in 2026, CryptoQuant said.

The report also draws attention to another important figure. “Bitcoin fell below the 365-day moving average for the first time since March 2022, falling 23% in the 83 days since the crash, which is worse than the bear phase at the beginning of 2022,” CryptoQuant analysts wrote. he said. Moving average is a technical trading term that refers to the average closing price of an asset over a certain period of time.

CryptoQuant said this points to “a potential downside towards the $70,000 to $60,000 range.”