Bitcoin at $59K: Strategy’s sell-off fears are weighing on the market

Market overview

The crypto market is trading at $2.06T, unchanged from the previous day. Still, the current levels represent a recovery from a low of $2.02T, where the cap had fallen at the start of the active US trading session and again at the opening of the Asian session. Cryptocurrencies remain under pressure from fears of selling by Strategy, casting a shadow over the relatively positive backdrop of favourable stock market dynamics and a declining dollar. Among the top coins over the past 24 hours, the leaders were Stellar (+7%), Cardano (+4.8%) and Bitcoin Cash (+3.6%). The underperformers were Aave (-3.9%), Algorand (-3.2%) and Basic Attention Token (-3%).

The sentiment index plummeted to 11, its lowest level in roughly the last three weeks. June turned out to be a rather gloomy month, as sentiment was above the ‘extreme fear’ threshold of 25 on only the 1st, remaining within the range of 8 to 23 for the rest of the month.

At the start of the day on 1 July, Bitcoin slipped to $57.8K, having recovered to above $59K at the time of writing. At its lowest point, BTC hit its lowest level since September 2024, and the subsequent attempt to rebound still looks rather tentative. The leading cryptocurrency is gradually slipping below the 200-week moving average, which is typical behaviour for it at this point on the curve, judging by several past instances.

Bitcoin fell by 20.5% in June to $58.6K, marking its second consecutive month of decline following a two-month rally. This monthly decline was the steepest in the last four years. From a seasonal perspective, July is generally considered a fairly successful month for BTC. Over the past 15 years, Bitcoin has ended the month higher on ten occasions and lower on five. The average gain was 19%, while the average decline was 7.8%.  

News background

Over the past week, BitMine purchased an additional 27,084 ETH worth $43 million, bringing the total amount of Ethereum in its reserves to 5.7 million ETH, which exceeds 4.7% of the total Ethereum supply. BitMine has achieved 94% of its target to consolidate 5% of the second-largest cryptocurrency's total supply over the past 11 months, according to BitMine's Chairman, Tom Lee.

According to Arkham Intelligence, the US company Sharplink has resumed buying Ethereum after an eight-month hiatus. Last week, the company acquired 39,196 Ether for $62.4 million.

Strategy did not buy any Bitcoin last week, but sold a block of MSTR ordinary shares, increasing its dollar reserves to $2.55 billion. According to the company, these funds will be sufficient to cover 17 months of expected share-based payments.

Following the latest adjustment, the Bitcoin mining difficulty rose sharply by 7.15% to 133.87 T. This is the largest increase in the metric since February.

According to SoSoValue, investors withdrew $4.3B from US Bitcoin ETFs in June. This monthly outflow was the largest since the launch of the Bitcoin ETF in January 2024. 

Summary: The crypto market is at lows, with sentiment in the ‘fear’ zone. BTC fell by 20% in June and is trading around $59K, under pressure from selling and ETF outflows, despite a localised recovery.