Bitcoin Slips to $61.4K Local Low as ETF Outflows Top $4.8B and Demand Goes on Vacation 🏖️

Bitcoin [$BTC] dropped 3.9% over the past 24 hours to a local low of $61.4K, extending a sell-off that has now pushed the asset 6.6% lower on the week and roughly 51% below its all-time high of $126,080. Strategy disclosed a 32 $BTC sale, its first since 2022, adding to the selling pressure. Spot Bitcoin ETFs have recorded only one day of inflows since May 14, tallying more than $4.8 billion in outflows over that period, according to data from Farside Investors.

On-chain metrics cited by analysts pointed to a clear shift in market structure. Crypto analyst Axel Adler Jr. noted that the impulse performance metric's fast component sat near -90 while the slow component had fallen to -59, with both readings bearish after the two-week downturn. The 30-day net taker volume, which had stayed positive since March on the back of aggressive buyers, flipped negative. Analyst Darkfost highlighted that $BTC exchange flows reversed sharply, with weekly outflows of 2,500 $BTC in April swinging to a weekly inflow of 2,410 $BTC. The Coinbase Premium Index has also slipped, signaling reduced willingness among U.S.-based investors to pay a premium for $BTC.

CryptoQuant's latest report added that Bitcoin may be drawing closer to a bear-market floor but lacks the demand to trigger a sharp rebound. The firm places Bitcoin's realized price around $53,600, about 13% below recent trading levels near $61,680. "Historically, Bitcoin has bottomed at or marginally below the realized price in each major bear cycle," CryptoQuant analysts wrote, noting that in November 2022 the FTX-driven bottom briefly pierced the realized price before a structural rebound. The firm added that "a confirmed bear-market bottom or bullish reversal may still take time to develop, as on-chain and derivatives data continues to show accelerating contraction in both speculative and apparent spot demand."

CryptoQuant's combined metric of long liquidations and spot demand contraction recently registered what it called "the most severe single-week demand destruction since January 2022," with realized losses still needing to accelerate in order to "clear the supply overhang necessary to support a durable price recovery." Strategy co-founder and Chairman Michael Saylor last week described the capital movement as "capital rotation, not a Bitcoin impairment." Meanwhile, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Wednesday that the Consumer Price Index rose 4.2% year-over-year in May, the fastest annual pace in three years, in line with economist expectations and reinforcing views that the Federal Reserve will maintain a restrictive policy stance.