Bitcoin fell for a fourth straight session, sliding toward $63,000 as a rising U.S. dollar and weakening equities dampened appetite for risk assets. Market participants warn that a sustained drop below $60,000 could ignite another wave of liquidations and potentially drive prices toward $52,500 — a long-standing support level from 2021.
BTC touched roughly $63,100, marking its lowest level since the Feb. 6 decline to around $60,200, according to CoinDesk data. The downturn unfolded alongside a 0.5% gain in the dollar index (DXY) since Monday’s Asian trading hours and continued softness in U.S. stocks.
Bitcoin has slipped 2.1% since midnight UTC and 4.7% over the past 24 hours. Traders caution that a clean break under $60,000 would likely accelerate forced selling across leveraged positions, deepening the correction.
Altcoins Extend Losses
Selling pressure was broad across the digital asset market. Bitcoin Cash dropped 11.5% over the past day, while Sui, Jupiter and World Liberty Financial each posted losses exceeding 2%.
Analysts described the current trend as a gradual “slow bleed,” a pattern often seen in extended crypto downturns. Still, technical signals offer a potential counterpoint. The relative strength index (RSI) across major tokens has entered oversold territory, suggesting the possibility of a short-term bounce if buyers defend the low $60,000 region.
Futures and Options Show Defensive Bias
Derivatives data points to continued deleveraging and rising caution:
- Notional open interest in crypto futures fell more than 4% to $92.5 billion, the lowest since April 2025, indicating capital is exiting leveraged products.
- About $360 million in leveraged bets were liquidated over the past 24 hours, with long positions accounting for the vast majority of forced closures on exchanges including BitMEX and Bitfinex.
- Despite the overall decline in leverage, global open interest in bitcoin futures climbed to 690,890 BTC — its highest since Feb. 6 — suggesting some traders are building fresh short exposure.
- Funding rates on perpetual futures remain negative across major tokens, reflecting a bearish tilt. Contracts tied to TRON show funding rates near -35%, a sign of increasingly crowded short positioning.
- Thirty-day implied volatility for bitcoin and ether has reached two-week highs, underscoring heightened market nerves.
- On Deribit, put options on bitcoin and ether are trading at a volatility premium of more than 10 points over calls through late-March expiry, signaling strong demand for downside protection. Block trades included put spreads and straddles, strategies that hedge against losses or position for increased volatility.
DeFi Underperforms as Capital Rotates to Safety
Outside a handful of exceptions, positive catalysts remain scarce. AI-linked token Pippin has bucked the broader trend, rising 7.7% in the past 24 hours and doubling since the start of the year.
In decentralized finance, total value locked (TVL) has declined less sharply than token prices, indicating investors are rotating into stablecoins rather than withdrawing entirely. Even so, DeFi-related tokens continue to lag. CoinDesk’s DeFi Select Index (DFX) has fallen 34.8% year-to-date, making it the weakest-performing major crypto benchmark so far in 2026.
With macro pressures building and leverage being unwound, attention remains centered on the $60,000 support level. Whether it holds could determine if bitcoin stabilizes — or faces a deeper slide in the near term.
