Bitcoin Sinks to 21-Month Low of $58,035 Amid Macro Pressure

Bitcoin News

Bitcoin (BTC) tumbled to a 21-month low of $58,035 on Thursday, its weakest level of 2026, before recovering toward $59,000 as sellers kept pressure on the market. The slide erased roughly $40 billion from the total crypto market capitalization in 24 hours, pushing the sector toward the $2 trillion threshold. On-chain data shows wallets holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC offloaded 45,074 coins over eight days, accelerating the decline below $60,000 for the first time since October 2024. The drop marks a near-51% retreat from Bitcoin’s October 2025 record above $126,000, underscoring how quickly leveraged positioning has unwound across the leading digital asset.

The sell-off intensified after U.S. economic data undercut hopes for monetary easing. The Commerce Department’s PCE price index — the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge — accelerated to 4.1% year over year, a roughly three-year high, while core PCE rose to 3.4%. At the same time, first-quarter GDP was revised up to 2.1% from 1.6%, signaling resilient growth. That combination of firm activity and renewed inflation gutted expectations for rate cuts this year, since the Fed’s main rationale for easing is a slowing economy. For a non-yielding asset like Bitcoin, higher-for-longer rates and a stronger dollar raise the opportunity cost of holding, weighing further on demand.

Pressure mounted on Strategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, as its preferred stock buckled. Stretch (STRC), the instrument that currently pays an 11.5% annual dividend, fell 8% to $74.13 after the U.S. open — more than 25% below the $100 par value the company engineered it to hold. Common MSTR shares slid 7% to $87.50 before stabilizing near $87.89. The deterioration tested confidence in Executive Chairman Michael Saylor’s “digital credit” thesis. Liquidations accelerated alongside the move: derivatives data shows more than $1.44 billion in positions wiped out over 24 hours, dominated by $1.2 billion in long bets, with Bitcoin alone accounting for $658 million.

The strain runs deeper than a single session. Strategy’s model rests on three interdependent pillars — its Bitcoin reserve, MSTR equity, and STRC preferred shares — and all three are weakening at once. MSTR slipped below $100 for the first time since March 2024, while STRC has hovered near $80, its steepest discount to par on record. The company’s annual preferred-dividend obligation has reportedly swelled from about $300 million in January to roughly $1.2 billion, even as cash reserves shrink from debt buybacks and continued Bitcoin purchases. By some estimates, the runway to cover those payouts has compressed from over seven years to around 14 months, raising the prospect that selling Bitcoin becomes unavoidable.

Analysts are increasingly debating where the bottom lies in this bear market. BTC.TOP co-founder Jiang Zhuoer projected a cycle low of $42,000 to $44,000 between October and December 2026, citing Strategy’s mNAV ratio — which compares its share price to the per-share value of its Bitcoin holdings — falling to 0.72, near the 0.70 trough seen in May 2022. PlanB, creator of the stock-to-flow model, expects Bitcoin to bottom below its realized price of roughly $53,000, as in prior cycles. Prediction-market traders echo the caution: on one venue, participants assigned a 76.8% probability that Bitcoin reaches $55,000 before $84,000, leaving the path of least resistance pointed lower.

Beyond price, a structural shift is reshaping where traders deploy capital. CryptoQuant founder Ki Young Ju noted that on Binance’s USDT-margined perpetual futures market, average per-asset volume in metals, oil, and equities has overtaken altcoins outside the top 10. The observation suggests crypto exchanges are evolving from venues for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and digital tokens into broader marketplaces where real-world assets (RWA) — traditional instruments such as gold, oil, and stocks represented on-chain — trade alongside them. The trend points to maturing demand that extends past native crypto cycles, even as Bitcoin itself remains the sector’s dominant gauge of risk appetite during the current drawdown.

COINOTAG’s proprietary 42-indicator composite scoring engine rates the $61,023 resistance at 74/100 — the strongest overhead level — built on the confluence of the Fibonacci 0.114 retracement, a high-volume node, and the prior daily close, while immediate support at $57,289 scores 68/100, driven by ATR Lower, Fibonacci 0.000, and Donchian Lower. With spot near $59,772 and RSI at 30.30, Bitcoin sits at the edge of oversold territory. Derivatives positioning is mixed: a negative funding rate of -0.0013% and $11.74 billion in open interest accompany a long/short account ratio of 2.50 (71.5% long), a crowded skew that risks further long squeezes. With the Fear & Greed Index at 12 (Extreme Fear), holding $57,289 keeps a bounce toward $61,023 viable; a clean break below opens the $51,387 zone.