Bitcoin (BTC) Slips Below $74,000, Extending Five-Week Losing Streak

Five Straight Weekly Declines

Bitcoin (BTC) price opened the new trading week under pressure, dipping below $74,000 before settling back to fluctuate just above that line. The slide put the market on the defensive before the week's data could even land. COINOTAG's live monitoring kept spot inside a narrow band around $74,000 through the early hours of Monday's session, with no sustained attempt to recover the lost ground. The move marked the fifth consecutive weekly candle to close in the red, a sequence that leaves the asset weak on the timeframe where larger positions are typically built. Five red weeks in a row means every short-term bounce so far has failed to change the higher-timeframe picture. Last week's $74,968 weekly close had already cost Bitcoin (BTC) its 50-week moving average, the long-term trend marker whose loss our earlier coverage flagged. The weak start landed just as the calendar fills with high-impact United States economic data, and the October CPI forecast of 3.9% from our rate-hike coverage remains the release traders are positioning for. The weakness was not confined to the largest coin. Across the past 24 hours Ethereum fell 5.7% to about $2,098, XRP slid 6.3% to $1.08, and Solana dropped 3.2% to trade near $86, a synchronized slide across the altcoin market. None of the largest assets closed the window in positive territory. Derivatives added fuel: liquidation data showed long positions absorbing 92% of losses in the $1.05 billion liquidation wipeout that hit crypto markets in the most recent flush. Buying pressure offered little counterweight, with activity consistent with the weak spot demand flagged after Bitcoin (BTC) spent five days unable to hold $80,000. The run of losses has lifted concern among traders that further downside may follow before buyers step back in.

The $75,000 and $77,000 Tests

Michael van de Poppe and Axel Adler, two analysts who publish their levels publicly, mapped where the trend could turn from here. Van de Poppe put the weight on $75,000: in his read, a sustained move back above that level is the condition for a renewed uptrend to begin. If Bitcoin fails to reclaim the zone, he warns the price could slide as far as $71,000. The weekly chart opened the new week weak after five straight declining candles, so the question in his framework is whether price can clear $75,000 and hold above the area rather than pass through it briefly. In his view, acceptance above that mark would be a significant sign that buyers have regained strength in the market. Adler starts from a different benchmark: the 365-day average price, which sits at $77,000. With spot below that average, he reads the downtrend as ongoing, and he adds that Bitcoin (BTC) has now fallen below the midpoint of last year's trading range, another marker of persistent selling pressure. A return above $77,000, in his assessment, would be the first sign that market conditions are improving. Until then his gates sit lower: the $75,500–$76,000 support zone has to be reclaimed, and the MVRV ratio, a metric comparing the market value of Bitcoin with the price at which coins last changed hands, has to climb back above its one-year average. Only when both turn, he argues, does the risk of further downside fade. The two calls share a structure: a reclaim level above spot as the recovery condition, and a specific threshold or target below it that defines the remaining risk. Spot has been trading under every one of the levels they name, which is why the $75,000 and $77,000 marks now function as the market's scoreboard. Our Bitcoin technical analysis page tracks how these levels line up with the composite support and resistance picture.

Cathie Wood's Gold Comparison

Cathie Wood of Ark Invest took the longer view. Despite the recent weakness, she expects Bitcoin to deliver higher returns than gold, and she argued that gold prices are more likely to fall than rise from here. Her supporting figure: the correlation between Bitcoin and gold has been just 0.1 since 2019, too low for the two assets to move as a pair. The case sits close to the Bitcoin Maximalism argument that BTC supersedes bullion as the monetary hedge, and it depends on holders keeping the HODL discipline through drawdowns like the current one. Whether that patience holds is what the $75,000 and $77,000 reclaims will test next.