Bitcoin fails again at $71,500, weakening momentum increases risk of further decline

As rising oil prices and rising bond yields move global markets into a risk-off environment, Bitcoin once again fails to hold $71,500, reinforcing the level as a long-term ceiling.

The rejection comes after Bitcoin briefly rose above $73,000, but then lost momentum and fell below $71,500.

This move extends a pattern that has played out several times in recent sessions, where prices rise into the same resistance zone, stall, and then reverse. An additional signal was sent on the seventh attempt. Rather than approaching the ceiling directly, the bull market hit lower highs before reaching the ceiling. Buying activity was slow in the early stages.

Markets tend to break through resistance when pressure increases below it. As attempts weaken, traders begin to treat the level differently.

The changes are already visible. Short sellers lean against the ceiling. Longing reduces the risk of staying close to the same number as continuing to reject the price. Momentum dies out candle by candle.

Bitcoin currently trades in the middle of a well-defined structure. Overhead at $71,500 is resistance, and the support shelf ladder begins around $68,000.

$71,500 returned as market pressure test

The $71,500 level has historical weight.

Mid-2025 marked the upper bound of a multi-month trading zone. Once Bitcoin finally broke through that ceiling, the rally accelerated, eventually taking Bitcoin to around $126,000 by October.

The market often remembers those breakout points. When price visits them again later in the cycle, those levels will be where traders re-evaluate their positions.

Recent charts show that process unfolding in real time.

Short-term price trends show repeated pushes into the $71,500 area followed by rapid reversals. The medium-term chart shows a broader pattern. That is, the same ceiling is challenged several times, but there is no continued acceptance beyond it.

Acceptance is more important than a short breakout. Bitcoin often rises above levels before falling. A structural change will only occur if the price remains above resistance long enough for traders to stop treating it as a short sale.

That hasn’t happened yet.

The fact that the recent rally has not reached a ceiling, or high, is evidence that buying pressure may be waning.

For now, the range remains the same.

The repeated failures reflect an early observation in a previous analysis that investigated how multiple rejections at the same level gradually change market sentiment.

Each stalled attempt adds weight to the next attempt.

ETF flows and macro conditions complicate breakout attempts

The technological situation is evolving with changes in the macro context.

Global markets went into risk-off mode on March 5 as oil prices rose due to escalating tensions in the Middle East. Brent crude oil is trading in the mid-$80s as traders price in potential disruption to the Gulf energy route.

Rising oil prices often have a direct impact on inflation expectations. In this case, the market’s reaction was unusual: Instead of a rise in safe-haven government bonds, yields on U.S. Treasuries rose.

The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury note has been hovering in the low 4% range, with investors pricing in the possibility that sustained energy inflation could delay a rate cut, recently hovering around 4.22%.

This environment tends to put pressure on risk assets.

Rising yields raise funding costs and tighten financial conditions across the market. Speculative assets often struggle to maintain upward momentum when the macro narrative shifts toward higher interest rates for an extended period of time.

During times like these, Bitcoin began to trade in line with an increasingly broad range of risk sentiments. When stock prices fall and yields rise, the cryptocurrency market often follows the same direction in the short term.

This pattern reappeared in this move, with stock prices falling and volatility rising as oil prices rose.

Currency markets are also part of this problem.

A rise in the US dollar tends to correlate with a fall in Bitcoin prices on the margin.

Meanwhile, the flow of ETFs has become more complex.

The Spot Bitcoin ETF recently recorded strong inflow days with $458 million on March 2nd, $225 million on March 3rd, and $461 million on March 4th. These inflows followed weeks of outflows.

Such an explosion in demand could support a rally, but it won’t necessarily lead to sustained buying pressure.

If the price approaches a major resistance zone like $71,500, it may struggle to overwhelm existing supply even on days with strong inflows.

A support shelf below the range forms the next roadmap

Bitcoin’s broader structure follows the liquidity grid that has guided price movements for much of the current cycle.

The concept is simple and clear. Markets tend to move between clusters of liquidity where traders have placed orders, built positions, or caused liquidations in the past.

One of my previous frameworks mapped some of these shelves across Bitcoin’s recent trading history.

These levels remain largely intact today.

Once the $68,000 shelf is broken, the price could start moving towards those lower liquidity pockets.

Markets often move rapidly between such zones when levels break. The drop from its previous six-digit price showed a similar behavior, with Bitcoin rapidly falling from one shelf to the next.

Derivative positioning can amplify that process. Liquidations tend to accelerate the decline as leveraged long positions are unwound. That acceleration is yet to come. According to Coinglass, approximately $340 million was liquidated across the cryptocurrency market in the past 24 hours.

For now, Bitcoin is between the ceiling and the first support shelf.

The next attempt at $71,500 will reveal whether buyers are still able to reclaim the range or whether the market continues to drift towards liquidity below.

This level has already been rejected several times.

The next test will determine if the ceiling is finally breached or if a downward staircase is the market’s next path.

This recent gathering could have invalidated my $49,000 paper. So far, that’s not the case.