Bitcoin Holds $62K as ETF Outflows Reach $2.97B, Strategy Sells First BTC Since 2022

Bitcoin News

Bitcoin clawed back into a $62,000 to $63,000 band this week after briefly puncturing the $60,000 threshold, a level that had acted as a psychological floor through the recent selloff. The recovery followed an aggressive bout of liquidations that dragged the largest cryptocurrency to multi-month lows, prompting traders to hunt for a base rather than chase a fresh rally. The broader technical picture stayed fragile, with the dominant trend still pointing lower. Market participants framed the bounce as a relief move within a weakening structure, noting that a durable reversal would require Bitcoin to reclaim several key moving averages it has lost during the decline.

Sustained redemptions from US spot Bitcoin ETF products remained the decisive force behind the slide. Flow data shows the funds endured their longest outflow streak on record, with cumulative net withdrawals reaching roughly $2.97 billion through the end of May. With no fresh inflows arriving to absorb the selling, price direction has become heavily tethered to capital movements rather than clean technical levels. Analysts at one major market maker attributed the pullback primarily to US institutional desks trimming exposure, not retail panic. They cautioned that prior support has thinned, leaving limited cushion and handing near-term control of price to fund flows.

The pressure rippled across major altcoins, where momentum gauges flashed deep oversold readings even as primary trends stayed weak. XRP broke beneath its $1.28 to $1.30 support shelf, a loss that accelerated selling and briefly pushed the token toward $1.10 before it attempted to stabilize between $1.15 and $1.18. Shiba Inu slid to around $0.0000045 with its relative strength index sinking into the 27 to 30 zone, while Dogecoin lost a rising trendline that had held since February and retreated near $0.085. Buyers emerged at these depressed levels, yet none of the charts confirmed a genuine trend reversal.

Sentiment commentary added another layer to the session. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao urged investors on the exchange side to stay calm, arguing that Bitcoin would not stay dormant for long and that panic-selling into weakness rarely pays off. On-chain data complicated the picture: wallets holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC trimmed their balances over the past two weeks, signaling that larger holders distributed into the drop. Smaller addresses, by contrast, stepped in as buyers, a divergence that often appears near capitulation phases. The split between accumulating retail and de-risking whales left the market without a clear directional consensus.

Corporate treasury behavior also drew scrutiny. Strategy, the software firm formerly known as MicroStrategy and the largest corporate holder of the asset, sold 32 BTC, marking its first reduction since 2022. The company characterized the transaction as immaterial relative to its vast holdings, but the timing stood out against a backdrop of relentless ETF redemptions. Bitcoin remains more than 50% below its October 2025 peak above $126,000, a drawdown that has tested even the most committed institutional balance sheets. The disclosure fed speculation about whether long-term corporate accumulators might pause purchases until volatility and outflows subside across the sector.

Macro forces sharpened the risk-off mood and deepened the bear market tone. US nonfarm payrolls rose 172,000 in May, far above the roughly 80,000 expected, while April's figure was revised up to 179,000. The robust labor data lifted bond yields and dimmed hopes for near-term Federal Reserve rate cuts, removing a potential tailwind for risk assets. Geopolitical tremors added to the strain after US forces launched strikes on Iran, shattering a fragile ceasefire and sending capital toward gold and oil. Bitcoin slipped below $62,000 in the immediate aftermath, behaving more like a high-beta risk asset than a safe haven during the escalation.

COINOTAG's proprietary 42-indicator composite scoring engine rates the $61,776 resistance at 80/100, driven by the confluence of the previous daily close, the R1 pivot and the 0.114 Fibonacci retracement, while the $59,131 support scores 79/100 on Fibonacci, Donchian Lower and a swing low; the deeper $57,078 floor carries a 70/100 reading. Derivatives data shows a slightly positive 0.0032% funding rate and $11.5 billion in open interest, with a 2.13 long/short ratio (68.1% long) that flags crowded longs vulnerable to a squeeze. With RSI at 23.51, a bearish MACD and a Fear & Greed reading of 9 (Extreme Fear), reclaiming $61,776 would open the path toward $64,207, whereas a daily close below $57,078 would invalidate the basing thesis.