Bitcoin Price Crash as Fear Hits Extremes, But Metaplanet Keeps Buying

Key Insights:

• Bitcoin price plummeted to $65K, which resulted in the worst sentiment since mid-2022.
• Over $2.7B in liquidations indicate forced selling, mostly from levered longs.
• Despite the crash, companies such as Metaplanet and Strategy continue to accumulate BTC.

BTC’s dramatic sell-off has pulled prices to their lowest since 2024, causing extreme fear in the crypto market. The Bitcoin price decline has wiped out months of gains and raised comparisons to past crisis-driven crashes.

Liquidations surge and sentiment collapses. Corporate buyers step in despite the chaos. Analysts frame the downturn as a late-stage shakeout. They reject the idea of a structural breakdown.

Bitcoin Price Drops as Selling Pressure Increases

BTC price hit a low of $60,000 during early Asian trading on Friday, with a double-digit percentage fall. Market strategist Jim Bianco called the move the fourth-worst daily drop of the decade.

He compared it to historic stress events. These included the March 2020 global shutdown due to the coronavirus. He also cited the Terra-Luna collapse in June 2022 and the FTX failure in November 2022.

Bitcoin Prices and Daily Change | Source: Bianco, X

The scale of the forced selling demonstrated the intensity of the move. Data from CoinGlass revealed that over 588,000 traders were liquidated in the last 24 hours.

Total liquidations reached about $2.7 billion, with almost 85% of these being from leveraged long positions. This pointed to largely bullish positioning being unwound rapidly.

From a technical perspective, the Bitcoin price also broke below the 200-week exponential moving average. This long-term indicator has only historically been breached in deep bear markets.

BTCUSD Weekly Chart | Source: TradingView

BTC price is now about 50% off its all-time high of $126,000 in October. This has reinforced worries that the market has entered a serious risk-off phase.

Crypto Fear & Greed Index Indicates Historic Capitulation

Investor sentiment worsened with prices. The Crypto Fear & Greed index dropped to a reading of 9 out of 100, or “extreme fear”. This marked the lowest level since June 2022. It followed the Terra ecosystem collapse. That event destabilized the broader market.

Fear & Greed Index Chart | Source: alternative.me

The index has been deeply depressed for almost two weeks. During that time, the Bitcoin price has plummeted about 38% from its 2026 high of nearly $97,000. The drawdown has erased all of the gains made in the last sixteen months and left many investors underwater.

Analysts point out that such extreme readings in sentiment are often emotional capitulation and not basic shifts. Historically, similar levels have occurred close to big market bottoms.

However, timing remains speculative. The data show investors focusing on preserving capital. Volatility dominates their choices. Uncertainty drives their decision-making in the short term.

Analysts Link BTC Price Drop to Macro and Tech Stress

Several analysts have linked the BTC price decline to broader macroeconomic pressures. Jeff Ko, chief analyst at CoinEx Research, noted a weekly drawdown of over 20%. He said it coincided with a sharp sell-off in US technology stocks.

He pointed to stretched valuations and the growing skepticism around an artificial intelligence-driven growth narrative.

Ko added that Bitcoin has not been a haven during the turmoil. Compared to gold, the outflows from Bitcoin have been greater. Also, investors are rethinking their role as a defensive asset during stressful periods.

Nick Ruck, director at LVRG Research, pointed to other macro headwinds. He said rising unemployment claims and softer figures for the US job market have raised doubts about economic strength.

These signals have lowered expectations for aggressive Federal Reserve rate cuts, which fuel broader risk aversion across markets.

Metaplanet Keeps Buying as Others Predict Deeper Bitcoin Price Lows

Despite the market turmoil, however, there are some long-term buyers. Japanese Bitcoin treasury firm Metaplanet confirmed it will keep on accumulating Bitcoin regardless of the crash.

Despite of unrealized losses, the firm’s stock dropped about 8%. Also, CEO Simon Gerovich said its strategy has remained unchanged.

Metaplanet stock price daily chart | Source: Yahoo Finance

The stance is similar to that of other corporate holders. Strategy, led by Michael Saylor, has also kept buying Bitcoin while sitting on billions in paper losses. Both companies seem to be focused on long-term supply action rather than short-term price action.

However, not all analysts are as optimistic. Polymarket data shows that 76% of traders expect the Bitcoin price to fall below $55,000. They are betting on this drop in the short term.

Stifel analysts issued a bearish outlook. They projected that the BTC price could decline to $38,000. They based this view on bear market patterns from 2018 and 2022.

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