Bitcoin is on track for its longest losing streak in years.
The cryptocurrency has fallen 5.53% this month, marking its worst January since 2022. If prices do not rebound, it will be the fourth consecutive month of losses for Bitcoin, the longest such stretch since 2018, when the collapse of the initial coin offering boom dragged the entire crypto market lower.
In the last 24 hours alone, nearly $800 million in bitcoin positions were liquidated, most of them long bets. At the same time, spot bitcoin ETFs saw $817.87 million in outflows in a single day, pushing weekly outflows close to $1 billion.
Risk off is back
Market participants say the pullback reflects a broader shift toward caution. According to Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget, rising geopolitical tensions have pushed investors toward traditional safe havens while treating crypto more like a high beta risk asset.
In that environment, bitcoin tends to trade less like digital gold and more like a volatile tech stock. Analysts are watching trading volume and relative strength index readings for signs of capitulation that could mark a short term bottom.
Pain now, bids below
Some analysts say the recent drop looks more like a short term shakeout than the start of a deeper structural downturn. Bitfinex researchers noted that buying interest has started to appear around $84,000, creating a tentative near term base.
They also pointed to larger passive demand sitting between $75,000 and $81,000, though whether those bids hold would only be tested if prices fall further.
The old cycles are broken
Marissa Kim of Abra argues that bitcoin’s recent underperformance versus gold and other debasement trade assets reflects a bigger shift in market structure. Massive money creation in recent years may have disrupted the predictable four year crypto cycles that traders once relied on.
She also pointed to lingering aftereffects from a sharp October flash crash tied to pricing issues at Binance, which reportedly forced several large market makers to scale back or exit. Reduced liquidity from those players could be amplifying today’s volatility.
For now, bitcoin is stuck between fading momentum and hopes that forced selling is close to exhaustion.