The price of Bitcoin fell below $75,000 for the first time since mid-April, triggering a significant decline in digital assets overall.
data from crypto slate The largest digital asset fell more than 3% in the past 24 hours, falling to $74,255 after trading above $77,000 early in the session. The move returned Bitcoin to the price range last seen in April, when the market was still recovering from a broad risk asset reset.
The decline spread to the broader crypto market, with Ethereum down about 5% to about $2,065, while HyperLiquid, one of the strong performers in recent weeks, fell more than 7% to about $55.
Other major digital assets such as XRP, Cardano, BNB, Solana, and Dogecoin also fell as selling pressure spread across the market.
The reversal came despite recent regulatory momentum surrounding the CLARITY Act, which had helped raise hopes that a clearer U.S. market structure could attract more capital to the sector.
Rather, market data showed that traders shifted their attention back to demand, capital flows, and leverage after Bitcoin failed to sustain the $75,000 level.
BTC spot demand weakens as ETFs turn sellers
Market analysts believe the market pullback is due to a combination of technological depletion and a sharp decline in demand from institutional investors.
Julio Moreno, Head of Research at CryptoQuant, said spot demand for Bitcoin is shrinking at the fastest pace since January 10, noting that market fundamentals are weakening as prices test key technical zones.
The pressure has been most evident in the U.S. Spot Bitcoin ETF, which has seen cumulative outflows of more than $2 billion in the past two weeks. The withdrawal is one of the earliest withdrawals from the fund in two weeks, removing a source of demand that helped stabilize Bitcoin during the early stages of its rally.
The change in ETF flows is significant as spot funds have served as one of the main channels for institutional investors’ allocations to Bitcoin.
When money flows into these funds, the issuing company typically needs to acquire Bitcoin to support the issuance of new shares. Fund outflows could reverse that support, leaving the market even more reliant on direct spot purchases and derivative positioning.
After all, Bitcoin’s latest pullback came after the asset encountered resistance near levels that had previously limited rebounds.
As spot demand weakened and ETF flows turned negative, the rally above $77,000 lacked the follow-through needed to sustain the rally above the $75,000 threshold.
Nearly $1 billion in positions were liquidated.
The drop below $75,000 triggered a wave of rapid liquidations across the cryptocurrency derivatives market, forcing out leveraged traders as prices passed through key levels.
According to data from Coinglass, $941 million in derivatives positions were liquidated across the market within 24 hours, affecting more than 161,200 retail traders as prices fell below key support levels.
Bitcoin-related contracts were the hardest hit, enduring more than $378 million in liquidations. Ethereum derivatives traders saw around $255 million in positions forced to close.
The single largest liquidation order across all platforms occurred on the Bitget exchange, extinguishing $32.4 million in Bitcoin swap contracts.
Meanwhile, bullish traders absorbed most of the economic damage. Liquidations of long positions betting that prices would continue to rise accounted for about $870 million of the total eliminations. In contrast, traders holding short positions lost just $71.4 million.
The imbalance between long and short liquidations indicates that the market was at a high before the decline.
However, once Bitcoin price lost support around $75,000, it added to the pressure already created by ETF outflows and weak spot demand, leading to a forced sell-off.
Bitcoin risk indicators suggest pessimism at peak
Following these developments, BTC’s on-chain indicators suggest that the market is entering a phase of significant historical stress that could further impact the price.
Joanne Wesson, CEO of data analytics firm AlphaRactal, highlighted the disparity in the risk-adjusted performance of the market’s two largest assets.
Bitcoin’s annualized Sharpe ratio has turned negative, Wesson said, indicating an environment of increasing pressure and low return efficiency relative to potential risks. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s Sharpe ratio has hovered around zero, indicating a neutral environment that does not offer investors a clear premium for taking on exposure.
While the data paints a bleak picture in the short term, Wesson pointed to historical warnings. Extended periods of Sharpe ratios below zero typically represent the worst of market risk-reward, but these periods of strong pessimism and low efficiency often coincide with cyclical market bottoms.
The analysis firm cautioned that current indicators do not guarantee that the market has established a definitive lower bound.
However, the data confirms that digital assets are entering a zone of extreme risk, stress, and low sentiment.
(Tag translation) Bitcoin
