Bitcoin slides toward fifth straight monthly loss as $4.5B ETF outflows put $58,000 on the line

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Bitcoin is heading toward an uncomfortable milestone, a potential fifth consecutive monthly decline if February closes in the red, and the setup is starting to look less like a crypto-specific drawdown and more like a macro-driven repricing.

This five-month losing streak would be notable in the post-ETF era and would also be Bitcoin’s longest stretch of monthly declines since 2018, when it posted six consecutive down months during the bear market.

At under $63,000, BTC is down by almost 20% this month, which is its largest monthly drawdown since June 2022.

However, the negative price streak itself is not the main story.

The bigger shift is that Bitcoin is being priced in a different regime, one where ETF flows, rate expectations, and cross-asset risk sentiment are carrying more weight than crypto-native catalysts.

As a result, BTC traders are no longer centered on the timing of a return to new highs. Instead, the debate has shifted to where the next durable bid sits, and the level attracting the most attention is $58,000.

A market driven by ETF flows, positioning and macro

Over the past several weeks, Bitcoin has traded less like a standalone digital asset and more like a high-beta risk instrument.

That distinction matters because it changes how traders read the tape.

In a crypto-led market, narratives around adoption, protocol upgrades, or long-term scarcity can dominate short-term price action.

In the current setup, the key inputs are more familiar to macro traders, flow data, options positioning, and broader risk appetite.

That shift shows up most clearly in ETF behavior.

When spot Bitcoin ETFs were taking in steady inflows, pullbacks were often met with automatic demand. Those flows acted as a cushion, not because sentiment had turned bullish, but because the structure itself required buying.

Now the opposite dynamic is in place. Persistent outflows do not just remove support; they can become a source of supply pressure.

This year, US spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen more than $4.5 billion in net outflows, a sign that institutional demand through the ETF wrapper remains under pressure even as parts of the market continue to look for a floor.

That is a large shift in marginal demand, and it helps explain why rebounds have struggled to hold.

Data from CryptoQuant further buttresses the case for why spot Bitcoin ETFs have become integral to BTC's price performance.

Since May 2025, daily trading volume in Bitcoin spot ETFs has exceeded the combined volume of global centralized exchanges. Today, 55% of all daily Bitcoin spot trading volume comes from ETFs.

Essentially, institutional flows have now become the market’s dominant liquidity channel and are no longer one part of the market.

That shifts the market’s center of gravity, as retail investors increasingly react to a price-discovery process led by Wall Street.

The result is a tape that looks more like a macro asset under stress, lower highs, repeated tests of support, and a market that keeps revisiting the same price zones until either the flow backdrop improves or a stronger floor is established.

Why $58,000 has become the key stress-test level

The growing focus on $58,000 is not about a single chart pattern. It reflects a convergence of frameworks.

The first is a long-cycle technical structure. The 200-week EMA remains one of the most widely watched regime markers in Bitcoin.

In past bear phases and late-cycle resets, price action near that level has often forced a broader reassessment, whether it's a correction within an uptrend or the start of a deeper repricing.

The second is on-chain cost-basis gravity. Below the contested zone, traders are watching aggregate cost-basis measures, including realized-price type anchors.

When Bitcoin starts moving toward the average embedded purchase price of holders, behavior tends to change.

Some investors cut risk and lock in losses. Others step in because the price looks cheaper relative to the network’s purchase history.

The third is the demand cluster in the current range.

Recent on-chain analysis points to a contested zone between $60,000 and $69,000, where demand has been absorbing repeated sell pressure.

If that zone breaks cleanly, $58,000 becomes the next clearer reference point, sitting below the cluster and above deeper cost-basis anchors.

That is why $58,000 is best understood as a stress test, not necessarily the final floor.

If the market holds there, it can become the start of a base. If it fails, attention can shift quickly toward deeper on-chain levels in the mid-$50,000 area.

Options markets show organized downside demand, not panic

Derivatives data reinforces why $58,000 has become the focal point.

Data from Deribit shows a continuous downtrend in the current range, and traders in the options market have continued to position for downside through protection trades and bearish expressions.

The structure of those trades matters because it helps explain what kind of move participants are bracing for.

According to the firm, BTC's put skew is back to Feb. 5 levels, and implied volatility is trading more than 10% above realized volatility on a seven-day measure.

That combination points to strong demand for downside protection, and it is happening without a fresh spot collapse of the same scale as the Feb. 5 move.

The demand is concentrated around $58,000 strikes. Traders have been active in 58,000 puts, put spreads, and risk reversals, with the derivatives market increasingly organized around that level as the main downside reference.

Deribit pointed out that the clearest example came with the addition of March 6, 58,000 puts, where about $200 million in notional was bought for about $2 million in premium.

That matters because it suggests funds are positioning for a lower grind, not necessarily a sudden capitulation.

In a grinding market, put spreads and risk reversals can be more efficient than outright puts, because they reduce premium costs and extend the duration of the trade’s potential payoff.

At the same time, Galaxy Digital’s Head of Research Alex Thorn said Bitcoin is nearing all-time oversold territory.

Thorn said the weekly RSI is lower than at any point outside what he called the darkest bear phases, and he flagged the only lower readings since 2016 as Nov./Dec. 2018, when Bitcoin fell from roughly $6,000 to $3,000, and Jun./Jul. 2022, during the Three Arrows Capital collapse and the period before Genesis’ insolvency became clear.

That does not guarantee a rebound, but it does frame the current setup as statistically stretched, even if the market still needs a catalyst to stabilize.

On-chain data shows where deeper pain and support could emerge

CryptoQuant data on long-term holders adds another layer to the market’s decision tree.

According to the firm, long-term holders (LTHs), a cohort that is generally less sensitive to short-term price fluctuations, are still sitting on an average profit of roughly 74%.

That means the cohort is not yet under broad stress, but the margin is shrinking as spot price drifts lower.

CryptoQuant estimates the LTH cost basis at about $38,900, and that figure is rising over time as short-term holders who bought at higher prices age into the long-term category.

Bitcoin Long-Term Holders Realized Profit and Loss

In other words, the pain threshold is not fixed. It climbs with the cycle.

Historically, CryptoQuant noted that bear markets have often featured a break below the LTH cost basis, followed by a final capitulation phase marked by realized losses of about 20%.

That has usually been the kind of washout that clears leverage and allows a more durable rebuild.

CryptoQuant cautioned that this was only an observation based on a limited number of occurrences. That caveat matters, especially in the current cycle.

The structure of Bitcoin ownership has changed. Institutions, corporate entities, and sovereign actors now play a larger role than in prior cycles.

Those participants bring different mandates, time horizons, and liquidity profiles, and those structural changes could alter how the market behaves around traditional on-chain pain points.

That is one reason the mid-$50,000 to $60,000 area is so important.

It may serve as the zone where old-cycle patterns and new-cycle market structure meet, and where traders find out whether institutional participation softens the drawdown or simply amplifies it through ETF flows and macro-sensitive positioning.

The next move depends on whether the market can repair, or has to flush

The cleanest way to frame Bitcoin into the month-end is as a set of paths, not a single forecast.

The base case is an orderly grind. Bitcoin continues to trade inside the contested $60,000 to $69,000 region, with sharp intraday swings but no decisive break.

February closes red, the five-month losing streak becomes official, and the market treats the move as a reset rather than a collapse.

That path would likely require ETF outflows to keep slowing, spot selling pressure to ease, and options markets to stay defensive without a fresh spike in volatility.

The bear case is a mechanical flush. A break below the $60,000 demand zone triggers stop-losses and systematic selling, and price moves into the $58,000 test.

If the 200-week EMA fails to attract enough demand, focus would shift to deeper cost-basis anchors in the mid-$50,000 range.

In this scenario, the catalyst is not necessarily a crypto-specific shock. It is continued ETF bleeding, weaker risk sentiment across markets, and a derivatives market that keeps paying up for downside protection.

The bull case is a flow-led reclaim. Bitcoin holds the current demand zone, ETF flows stabilize and then turn positive, and options skew begins to normalize.

That would allow price to move back toward higher on-chain mean levels associated with more expansionary conditions.

In that setup, the streak ends not because sentiment improves first, but because the marginal buyer returns.

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