Bitcoin’s sustained price correction will deepen as demand from US investors weakens, leaving the world’s largest cryptocurrency increasingly exposed to leveraged positions concentrated below $60,000.
According to crypto slate According to the data, the top cryptocurrency was trading at $59,800 at the time of writing, down 16% this month. The decline brought the asset closer to price levels where forced liquidations could increase selling pressure.
Record withdrawals from U.S. spot exchange-traded funds, poor performance during U.S. trading hours and a defensive stance in options markets suggest buyers have not yet regained control.
If spot demand does not recover, Bitcoin risks drifting towards a key support line below $60,000.
US demand weakens despite friendly policy backdrop
The clearest signs of weakening U.S. demand came during trading hours in the U.S., which had traditionally benefited from increased currency activity and institutional buying.
According to data from Velo, Bitcoin’s cumulative return during the US session has been around -15% over the past month. Therefore, a strategy that held Bitcoin only during that time period would have recorded a 15% loss, indicating that the US trade was a source of selling pressure rather than support.
This track record stands in contrast to the country’s increasingly positive attitude towards the cryptocurrency industry.
Over the past year, President Donald Trump’s administration has introduced a more supportive policy environment than its predecessor, reinforcing expectations that the United States will become a leading center for digital asset investment.
However, that political change did not translate into sustained purchases in Bitcoin’s recent selloff.
Evidence of this weakening in BTC demand can also be seen in flows into regulated investment products.
The U.S.-listed Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund has recorded about $6.35 billion in net withdrawals over the past 30 days, according to data from Galaxy Research. This is the largest outflow of the 582 rolling 30-day periods analyzed by the company.
While the withdrawals do not necessarily indicate that all ETF investors are bearish, the size of the redemptions weakened the demand sources that helped absorb Bitcoin’s supply during the initial rally.
Furthermore, the Coinbase Premium Index also remains negative at around -0.13. This measure compares the price of Bitcoin on Coinbase with prices on offshore exchanges and is commonly used to measure relative demand from US investors.
This figure has improved from its low of around -0.25 in late February, suggesting that selling pressure is not as severe as it was then. However, the failure to return to positive territory shows that Coinbase buyers are still reluctant to pay more than traders on offshore platforms.
Taken together, these data points point to a broader pullback in U.S. demand, rather than an isolated decline on one exchange.
$57,300 emerges as next leverage test
With spot demand subdued, the market has become more sensitive to leveraged derivative positions.
Joan Wesson, CEO of analytics platform Alphactal, identified $57,300 as a critical liquidation level after examining data from 30 exchanges over the past 30 days.
A liquidation level is a price level at which a leveraged trader may no longer have enough collateral to maintain a position. The exchange may then automatically close these trades and add sell orders to the market during a decline, potentially increasing volatility.
Therefore, if Bitcoin continues to lose momentum below $60,000, the concentration around $57,300 represents a risk.
Notably, derivatives traders at options exchange Deribit are actively positioning for this downside scenario.
According to the firm’s data, approximately $1.1 billion of positions are concentrated at $60,000, making that level the area of immediate interest. Another $1.4 billion was subject to $50,000 and $55,000 strikes.
While this figure represents a significant exposure to the derivative below its current price, the data provided does not prove that all positions are completely bearish bets. Options can be used to hedge existing stock holdings, generate income, or create strategies with multiple strikes.
Still, the accumulation highlights how much focus has shifted from recovering previous highs to dealing with the possibility of a deeper decline.
Weak demand makes Bitcoin rebound vulnerable
Bitcoin’s market structure suggests that buyers have not yet returned with enough momentum to reverse the current decline, leaving any short-term recovery vulnerable to renewed selling.
CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler pointed to the Net Taker Volume Oscillator, which measures the difference between market buys and market sells and smoothes the results with a 30-day moving average.
Since market orders are executed instantly against available liquidity, this indicator can help show which side is trading more aggressively.
The oscillator has remained firmly positive for two months, rising to about 1.7% in mid-May when aggressive buying pushed Bitcoin towards local highs. After that, it fell to minus 0.9% in early June, and then recovered to the zero line.
The return to zero suggests that the previous market seller advantage has eased, but it does not indicate that buyers have regained control.
A stronger recovery would require the oscillator to decisively rise above zero and remain there, indicating that traders are once again willing to buy at prevailing market prices.
Adler said the current numbers reflect a rather imbalance, with insufficient demand-side efforts to support a sustained recovery.
Clearing activity strengthens that reputation. CryptoQuant’s liquidation oscillator is 18.4%, indicating that long positions account for the majority of liquidations. This marks a sharp reversal from mid-May, when rising prices caused short sellers to exit their positions, sending the index down to around -13%.
This change means that leveraged buyers are now absorbing more of the market’s losses. It also raises the risk that a temporary pullback could attract new long positions that could be liquidated if Bitcoin resumes its decline.
Brock Scholes risk appetite indicators point to a broader pullback. That Bitcoin indicator has previously shown better resilience than ETH, approaching the -1.0 threshold associated with weak risk appetite.
In fact, Ethereum was already in weak risk territory, but Bitcoin’s continued decline has narrowed the gap between the two assets.
This convergence suggests that investors are reducing their overall crypto market exposure, rather than treating Bitcoin as a relative haven.
Taken together, these indicators indicate that selling pressure has eased without creating meaningful gains for buyers.
Until market order demand strengthens and the prolonged liquidation subsides, Bitcoin’s rally is likely to provide temporary relief rather than marking the beginning of a sustained recovery.
(Tag translation) Bitcoin
