Bitcoin Holds $62K as CPI Hits 4.2%, Strategy Defends BTC Sale, Fear Index at 12

Bitcoin News

The chief investment officer of asset manager Bitwise, Matt Hougan, said interest in Bitcoin remains strong among wealth managers, yet the conversation is shifting toward stablecoins and tokenization. After meeting more than 40 advisory teams — eight sales calls in a single day — he found nearly all expressed sustained appetite for digital assets even amid the downturn, but with attention turning to real-world applications such as cross-border settlement. Hougan noted that advisors collectively oversee upward of 175 trillion dollars and have grown far more sophisticated than two years ago, positioning them as a potential catalyst for the next bull market alongside assets like Ethereum, Solana and Chainlink.

Risk assets sold off sharply as US equities absorbed a double blow from inflation and geopolitics. The Dow Jones plunged 953 points (-1.87%) to 49,918, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq shed 1.62% and 1.98% respectively, after May CPI surged to 4.2%, the highest reading since 2023. Bitcoin nonetheless defended the 62,000 dollar handle, swinging between 60,755 and 62,858 dollars over 24 hours. Total liquidations reached 407 million dollars, with long positions accounting for roughly 65% of the wipeout. Markets repriced December rate-hike odds to 42.5% as renewed Iran tensions stoked energy-driven inflation fears ahead of next week's FOMC meeting on June 16-17.

Strategy chief executive Phong Le pushed back on criticism over the firm's first Bitcoin sale since 2022, framing it as a deliberate test rather than a reversal of Michael Saylor's hold-forever doctrine. Between May 26 and May 31 the company sold 32 BTC for roughly 2.5 million dollars at an average 77,135 dollars per coin — just 0.004% of its holdings — to prove its disposal processes work, harvest tax losses, and demonstrate balance-sheet flexibility. Le stressed the sale was not driven by distress and that Strategy remained a net buyer, acquiring about 1,500 BTC over the same window, with proceeds directed toward distributions on its STRC perpetual preferred stock.

Recent analytics suggest Bitcoin may be approaching a structural floor even as buying interest fades. After dipping below 60,000 dollars last week for the first time since 2024, BTC moved closer to its realized price — the aggregate cost basis for all holders — estimated near 53,600 dollars, about 13% beneath current levels. Historically, major bear cycles have bottomed at or just below this marker. Yet on-chain and derivatives data point to accelerating demand destruction, described as the most severe single-week contraction since January 2022. Spot Bitcoin ETF products have logged only one day of inflows since May 14, bleeding more than 4.8 billion dollars.

Mounting pressure on Bitcoin miners adds another layer of supply risk. Daily revenue per terahash of hashing power collapsed to an all-time low of 0.28 dollars, down from 0.39 dollars a month earlier, squeezing margins as the network's largest pools — Foundry USA, AntPool and F2Pool — now command a combined 59% share. Miners and mining pools still control over 110 billion dollars in BTC, and their 14-day net position has stayed negative since early May. With AI infrastructure demand surging and electricity access the chief bottleneck for data centers, some operators are repurposing power capacity toward AI computing, incentivizing them to trim Bitcoin holdings further.

Bitcoin's relative dominance over the broader market remains stark. Since 2020, BTC has outperformed nearly all of the top 100 altcoins, with many former leaders losing 90% to 99% of their value when priced in Bitcoin terms. The combined altcoin market capitalization, tracked as TOTAL2, now sits near 864 billion dollars after a steep weekly slide, below the 942 billion dollar shelf it just lost. Chart projections drawing on the 2021-2022 drawdown imply a potential bottom near 436 billion dollars by July — almost 50% below current levels — a move that would retest the cycle low printed in 2022 during the prior bear market.

COINOTAG's proprietary 42-indicator composite scoring engine rates the 61,764 dollar support at 80/100 — its strongest level — driven by the confluence of the 0.114 Fibonacci retracement, the S1/S3 pivots and the prior day's low. Overhead, the 62,890 dollar resistance scores 73/100 via the previous day high, R2 and point-of-control, with 64,664 dollars close behind at 71/100. With RSI at 27.2 signaling deeply oversold conditions and MACD still bearish in a confirmed downtrend, derivatives positioning skews crowded-long: a 2.02 long/short ratio (66.9% long) and 11.67 billion dollars in open interest leave longs exposed despite a barely positive 0.0032% funding rate. A daily close below 59,130 dollars would invalidate the bullish floor, while reclaiming 62,890 dollars reopens 64,664 dollars. The Fear & Greed Index at 12 underscores the extreme-fear backdrop.