Bitcoin Slips Under $61K as ETFs Bleed a Third Day, Saylor NAV Defense Draws Backlash

Bitcoin News

Strategy chairman Michael Saylor drew criticism after defending the firm's latest Bitcoin purchase using net asset value rather than the BTC Yield and BTC-per-Share metrics he had long championed. Saylor said the company added 1,550 BTC plus $100 million in dollar reserves last week, arguing the two assets combined delivered value accretion for MSTR shareholders. Critics countered that folding cash into the valuation contradicts the per-share accumulation story the market had priced as a premium. One analyst argued Strategy now resembles a holding company managing mixed reserves more than a pure Bitcoin accumulator, weakening the rationale that justified its long-standing stock premium.

US spot Bitcoin ETF products logged a third straight session of net outflows on June 9, shedding $77.44 million on the day. BlackRock's IBIT led the redemptions with $61.64 million leaving the fund, followed by Fidelity's FBTC at $20.19 million; only Grayscale's mini Bitcoin trust bucked the trend with a modest $4.39 million inflow. Total net assets across the 13 products stood at $77.58 billion, equal to roughly 6.23% of Bitcoin's market capitalization. Cumulative inflows since launch have slipped to $53.77 billion, the lowest reading since last August as institutional buyers stayed sidelined.

The selling extended beyond Bitcoin, with spot Ether ETFs losing an additional $40.85 million the same session and pushing combined digital-asset ETF outflows to roughly $118.29 million. Market watchers tied the exodus to a rotation of capital toward artificial-intelligence equities and a wave of high-profile IPOs, which have siphoned risk appetite away from crypto even as broader risk-on sentiment persists. Longer-term flows remain positive, with cumulative altcoin and Bitcoin ETF inflows still deeply in the green, suggesting the move reflects short-term repositioning ahead of US inflation data rather than a wholesale structural exit.

On-chain data shows Bitcoin network activity is surging even as price slides, an unusual divergence. The 30-day moving average of transaction counts has climbed to roughly 640,000, approaching the record near 666,000 set last September, while the price fell from around $100,000 at the start of the month into the $80,000s, a drop that briefly reached 19%. Activity typically cools during selloffs, so the spike signals heavy redistribution between long-term holders taking profits and new buyers absorbing supply. Analysts describe it as one of the largest ownership-transfer phases in Bitcoin's history rather than a confirmed bullish reversal.

Arthur Hayes offered a fresh explanation for Bitcoin's muted performance despite expanding dollar liquidity, pointing to AI as the dominant capital sink. He estimated AI-related firms have issued roughly $1.5 trillion in debt since late 2022, matching the period's M2 money-supply growth, effectively absorbing most newly created dollars. Over the same span Nvidia rose about elevenfold against Bitcoin's roughly sevenfold gain. Analyst Doctor Profit separately warned the market has entered stage five of a six-phase bear market cycle, flagging a potential $40,000 to $48,000 bottom around September or October 2026.

Derivatives data exposes a sharp split between large and small traders. On major exchange venues including Binance and Bybit, whale positioning on Bitcoin registered as extremely bearish, with similar readings on Ether and Solana. Retail traders moved in the opposite direction: Binance's retail long/short ratio sat at 2.04 for Bitcoin, 2.31 for Ether and 3.14 for Solana, indicating aggressive bottom-fishing. Observers framed the standoff as a classic post-crash tug-of-war, noting a short squeeze could test $64,000, but a durable trend reversal would require confirmed spot inflows rather than leverage-driven bounces.

COINOTAG's proprietary 42-indicator composite scoring engine rates the $61,776 resistance at 80/100, driven by the confluence of the prior-day close, the R1 pivot and the Fibonacci 0.114 retracement, with the next barrier at $64,206 scoring 73/100 on POC and R2 alignment. On the downside, the $59,130 support scores 79/100, anchored by a Donchian lower band and a prior swing low. With RSI at 23.51 deeply oversold, a bearish MACD and a confirmed downtrend, momentum stays heavy. Derivatives show a thin 0.0015% funding rate, $11.49 billion open interest and a 2.14 long/short ratio (68.2% long), while a Fear & Greed reading of 9 signals extreme fear; losing $59,130 invalidates the bounce thesis.