Bitcoin’s bounce from last week’s sharp selloff is losing steam. After briefly plunging into the low $60,000 range, the world’s largest cryptocurrency rebounded toward $70,000 over the weekend, only for that upward momentum to quickly ease.
As of 7:56 GMT, Bitcoin was trading 1.70 percent lower at $68,903, while Ether was down 4.51 percent at $2,009.18.
Trader sentiment remains cautious
That rally’s pause is prompting traders to recast the move as a textbook bear-market rally, a sharp rebound that lures in dip buyers before running into heavy selling from investors seizing the chance to exit at more attractive levels.
Sentiment indicators tell an equally cautious story. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index slumped to 6 over the weekend, matching lows last seen during the FTX-driven collapse in 2022, before clawing back to 14 by late Monday.
Liquidity conditions are further deepening the market’s unease. With order books relatively thin, even modest selling can spark exaggerated Bitcoin price moves, setting off stop-losses and liquidations in a self-reinforcing loop that leaves trading looking chaotic.
Read: Bitcoin trades near $65,000 following steepest one-day drop since November 2022
Trading volumes drop sharply
Kaiko characterized the environment as part of a broader risk-off unwind, noting that aggregate trading volumes on major centralized exchanges have fallen by about 30 percent since October and November. Monthly spot volumes, it said, have slid from roughly $1 trillion to around $700 billion.
The firm added that while last week featured a handful of sharp spikes in activity, the overarching pattern has been a steady decline in participation. That suggests that traders, especially retail investors, are drifting out of the market gradually, rather than being flushed out in a single wave.
When liquidity dries up to this extent, Bitcoin prices can fall rapidly on fairly limited selling, without the surge in panic-driven volume that typically marks a definitive capitulation and a more sustainable market bottom.
As Bitcoin declined, the broader crypto market saw mixed movement. XRP, the third-largest crypto, fell 0.3 percent to $1.42. Solana also fell 0.3 percent to $84.60, while Cardano climbed 0.2 percent to $0.2635.
