Bitcoin has shed more than $15,000 in value over the past week, falling from $82,400 to $65,856. More than $2.41 billion in crypto positions were liquidated in just 48 hours, with $93 million in futures wiped out in a single hour, 95% of which were long positions caught on the wrong side of the move.
Three Forces Behind the Crash
The first was BlackRock. IBIT, the world’s largest Bitcoin ETF, recorded nine consecutive sessions of outflows in May, draining $2.43 billion from the fund over the course of the month.
The figure that stopped traders cold was a single $1.26 billion dark-pool block sale executed on May 26, the kind of institutional-sized move that raises immediate questions about who is selling and why. No explanation has been offered publicly.
The second force was Strategy. Michael Saylor’s company disclosed its first Bitcoin sale since December 2022, selling 32 $BTC for $2.5 million to cover preferred stock dividend obligations.
The sale itself was trivial relative to Strategy’s 843,706 $BTC holdings, but the symbolism was not. The market had treated Strategy as an unconditional buyer for years. The moment that certainty cracked, sentiment followed.
The third force was Mt. Gox. On June 2, the defunct exchange moved 10,422 $BTC worth approximately $739 million to new wallets, its largest transfer in months. With Mt. Gox’s creditor repayment deadline set for October 2026, every large wallet movement now triggers fresh speculation about imminent selling from creditors who have been waiting years to recover their funds.
Why Altcoins Are Telling a Different Story
Despite the severity of Bitcoin’s decline, something unusual is happening beneath the surface. Altcoins are not behaving the way they typically do during a Bitcoin crash. In a normal risk-off event, a 10% Bitcoin drop drags altcoins down 20% to 40%. That has not happened this time.
Ethereum is down 5% on the day but has held above $1,824. Solana shed 5.14% but remains structurally intact. BNB dropped 5.62%. Hyperliquid is up nearly 20% over the past seven days.
Analyst Michaël van de Poppe flagged the divergence directly. Bitcoin is now less than 10% away from its 200-week moving average, sitting on a strong monthly support level with a daily RSI below 25, a reading that has historically preceded at least a short-term floor.
Van de Poppe said that if Bitcoin stabilises here, altcoins could break out to the upside, describing the setup as the conditions for an altcoin summer.