06/03 update below. This post was originally published on June 02
Bitcoin, which has struggled amid a surprise BlackRock sell-off, has dropped under the closely-watched $70,000 per bitcoin level.
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The bitcoin price collapse, down almost 50% from its all-time high of $126,000 per bitcoin reached in October last year, has caused billionaire Mark Cuban to suddenly flip on crypto.
Now, as “insane’” Federal Reserve money printing could be about to trigger a bitcoin price rebound, traders are braced for “deeper correction waves” after Michael Saylor’s Strategy surprised the market with a bitcoin sale.
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Bitcoin is on the brink of a price crash after Michael Saylor spooked the market with a bitcoin sale.
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“The bitcoin price is showing signs of weakness and plunging below the $70,000 area,” CryptoQuant analysts wrote in a note, pointing to large supply pressure from those that bought between six and 12 months ago as “a huge barrier” to a future recovery.
“After enduring losses through the crash at the beginning of the year, this group is choosing a safe solution by pushing supply onto exchanges as bitcoin recovered to the $80,000 area, creating a potential selling pressure after which the price adjusted downward. This exchange inflow volume needs to be well absorbed; otherwise, bitcoin will face deeper correction waves.”
06/03 update: The crypto market has now lost almost $2 trillion from its combined market capitalisation since October last year, when the market hit a record $4.4 trillion.
“The market has not been this low since late March, and this marks a further development of the downward momentum that began in the middle of last month,” Alex Kuptsikevich, the FxPro chief market analyst, said in emailed comments.
“Capital interest remains focused on equity markets, but the Nasdaq 100 is hitting new highs, despite the alarming pace of market capitalisation contraction with which it was previously closely correlated.”
The crypto fear and greed index, a measure of market sentiment that can be seen as a lagging indicator, has plunged back toward its all-time low, dropping to well into the “extreme fear” zone.
“The sentiment index plummeted to 11, its lowest level since early April,” Kuptsikevich said. “This is dangerous territory where a hunt for stop-loss orders on long positions could begin, followed by an even greater increase in volatility. Starting with bitcoin, such dynamics often become even more volatile in altcoins.”
Meanwhile, the BVIV volatility index, which measures bitcoin’s 30-day implied or expected volatility, surged nearly 20% yesterday, its biggest single-day spike since early February.
“Sentiment continues to sour as investors consider other risk assets which have outperformed cryptos recently, making them a preferred vehicle from which to profit,” David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation.
Later this month, Elon Musk’s rocket and AI company SpaceX is expected to make its hotly-anticipated debut as a publicly traded company, reportedly targeting a $75 billion fundraise and a valuation of $1.75 trillion.
Meanwhile, ChatGPT developer OpenAI and its biggest rival Anthropic are also gearing up for initial public offerings (IPOs) of their own.
“U.S. tech stocks, particularly anything AI-related, have been an obvious alternative, while the upcoming SpaceX IPO is another clear investment target,” Morrison said.
“There is some decent support around $65,000 so bitcoin bulls will be hoping that prices can steady in this area. But the daily MACD [moving average convergence divergence] shows that downside momentum has accelerated following this week’s steep selloff. If there were to be a protracted and significant break below here, then that would increase the likelihood that the February low of $60,000 comes into play.”
Strategy has followed through with his May promise to sell some bitcoin, offloading 32 bitcoin worth $2.5 million in what Saylor claimed is part of a plan to make the company’s controversial, high-paying, monthly dividend stretch shares “the best credit instrument in the world.”
The announcement sent the company’s stock 6% lower yesterday, falling another 3% in the pre-market this morning, with Strategy’s share price down more than 60% since its summer 2025 peak.
Strategy continues to hold 843,706 bitcoin, bought at an average purchase price of $75,699, making it by far the largest institutional holder of the cryptocurrency, rivalled only by bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) giant BlackRock, which holds almost 800,000 bitcoin on behalf of investors.
Strategy raised the possibility of selling some bitcoin last month to meet dividend payment commitments and reassure the market that there were buyers if the company ever needed to sell bitcoin in the future.
“We will probably sell some bitcoin to pay a dividend just to inoculate the market and send the message that we did it,” Saylor said in May during the company’s first quarter earnings call, adding the company planned to “buy bitcoin with credit … let it appreciate, and then … sell bitcoin to pay the dividend.”
At the time, Saylor called the plan “a big nothing burger from an economic point of view,” dismissing fears that Strategy’s sale of bitcoin could trigger a bitcoin price crash and suggesting that any sale would be followed by a big bitcoin buy, as it was in 2022 when the company sold around 700 bitcoin to harvest tax losses that could offset future gains, buying 800 bitcoin just a few days later.
“Bitcoin weakness turned Strategy into the market’s stress test,” analysts with Delphi Digital wrote in an emailed note.
“Bitcoin was down roughly 5.5% on the week, and the story moved from theoretical to real after Strategy sold 32 bitcoin. The market learned that Strategy is no longer read as a pure one-way accumulation vehicle. The old ‘never sell’ meme is now broken in practice, not just in conference-call language. The question shifts from whether Strategy can sell to how the market prices a treasury company that can turn collateral into supply when obligations or balance-sheet management require it. Optionality from the largest corporate bitcoin holder becomes part of price discovery.”
Other bitcoin price watchers and market analysts are also worried bitcoin could be headed for another price crash.
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The bitcoin price has dropped sharply, falling back toward its recent lows and sparking fears another bitcoin price could be looming.
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“Momentum is not on bitcoin’s side this week,” Nic Puckrin, macro analyst and cofounder of Coin Bureau, said in emailed comments. “With $2.8 billion in cumulative outflows from bitcoin ETFs and Michael Saylor selling 32 bitcoin last week, there is too much downward pressure on the price.”
Puckrin pointed to bitcoin falling even as the U.S. stock market, “driven by exuberance around AI, is continuing to hit new highs. This means bitcoin is being driven more by crypto-specific sentiment, and this is close to rock bottom right now.”
Puckrin warned that bitcoin “now needs to hold above $70,000 to avoid a more significant slide lower,” adding that the ongoing U.S. war in Iran and SpaceX’s upcoming initial public offering (IPO) as drags on the bitcoin price as they “draw speculative capital away from other risky assets. All in all, it’s not a good setup for the bitcoin price in the short term.”
