Bitcoin Slides Below $73K as $935M Liquidated, Strive Buys 490 BTC, Musk Merger Eyed

Bitcoin News

Bitcoin tumbled to a six-week low of $72,620 in early Asian trading on Thursday, erasing all gains accumulated since mid-April after reports of fresh US military strikes on Iran rattled risk assets. The 4.5% deviation from Wednesday's $76,050 daily high triggered roughly $935 million in market-wide crypto liquidations over 24 hours, with $874 million of that total wiped from long positions. BTC alone accounted for $348.5 million in long liquidations, while Ether followed with $228.5 million. A single $15.34 million BTC long on Hyperliquid marked the largest individual liquidation, underscoring how leveraged exposure remains the dominant downside catalyst when geopolitical shocks intersect with thin liquidity.

On-chain data points to mounting supply-side pressure from miners ahead of the breakdown. Roughly 21,000 BTC were transferred from miner wallets to Binance on May 18, only the second time this year inflows have crossed the 20,000 threshold and the closest comparison to the 23,150 BTC deposit recorded on February 5. Binance's BTC reserves climbed from approximately 618,600 BTC on May 6 to nearly 634,000 BTC by May 26. Spot-market conviction also softened, with the realized profit/loss ratio sitting near 1.56 — well below the 2-5 band typically seen during sustained bull market phases.

Even as spot prices retreated, corporate accumulation accelerated. Strive, Inc.'s Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock program, traded as SATA, absorbed an estimated 490 BTC in a single session on Wednesday — more than the roughly 450 BTC the network issues daily under post-halving block rewards. The instrument generated $66.9 million in volume at a 13% yield, with 95% of trading printed above the $100 par threshold. Strive's most recent SEC filing confirmed the purchase of 1,109 BTC between May 19 and May 22 at an average cost of $76,989, bringing total treasury holdings to 16,500 BTC.

Bitcoin-mining equities pivoting to artificial intelligence continued to defy the spot drawdown. IREN climbed more than 13% intraday, approaching a fresh all-time high after announcing a $1.6 billion supply deal with Dell for Blackwell AI systems tied to a previously disclosed $3.4 billion cloud contract. Cipher Digital jumped roughly 9.5% to print a record near $25, while Hut 8 advanced nearly 5% to $118, also a new peak. Hut 8 shares are up close to 600% year-over-year, buoyed by a $9.8 billion Nvidia-linked data-center lease that carries upside to $25 billion if contracts are renewed.

Reports surfaced this week that Elon Musk has discussed combining Tesla and SpaceX, a transaction that would instantly create one of the largest corporate BTC treasuries in public markets. Tesla holds 11,509 BTC and SpaceX owns 18,712 BTC, according to public disclosures and treasury-tracking data — a combined 30,221 coins worth approximately $3.3 billion at current prices. The merged entity would rank as the fifth-largest public corporate holder globally, trailing only Strategy, Twenty One Capital, Jack Mallers' venture, and the Metaplanet-Marathon Digital tier. SpaceX is expected to begin trading on Nasdaq next month following a $1.25 trillion private valuation.

Payments infrastructure also widened beyond pure-Bitcoin rails this week. Cash App rolled out fee-free USDC transfers across Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, and Arbitrum, with incoming stablecoins automatically converted to standard dollar balances. The move marks a notable shift for Block, whose founder Jack Dorsey has long championed BTC as open-protocol money and criticized stablecoins as merely shifting reliance "from one gatekeeper to another." Separately, Kraken introduced a Bitcoin Vault paying up to 2.5% APY by routing deposits into Aave, Morpho, and Tydro lending markets via a Veda-powered DeFi integration accessible directly from the regulated exchange.

Technicals reinforce the cautious tone. With BTC at $73,362 after a 3.5% daily slide, price is pinned between immediate support at $72,642 and resistance at $74,403, with deeper bids stacked at $70,280 and $66,863. The RSI reading of 35 sits just above oversold territory, while a bearish MACD print confirms downside momentum. A reclaim of $74,403 followed by acceptance above $76,196 would neutralize the bearish setup and re-open $78,592. Conversely, a daily close below $70,280 would invalidate the higher-time-frame structure and expose the $66,863 zone as the next defensible candlestick demand pocket.