Bitcoin sellers took control during European trading on Tuesday, driving BTC/USD below $70,000 for the first time since April. Analysts say Bitcoin has entered a distribution phase due to high selling pressure and investor losses.
Short-term holders are selling at a loss, with the Short-Term Holder SOPR metric dropping to 0.98. This suggests recent investors are capitulating amid uncertainty. Meanwhile, exchange inflows from six-to-12-month holders have surged to levels not seen since October 2025, when Bitcoin hit its all-time high above $126,000.
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"This exchange inflow volume needs to be well absorbed; otherwise, $BTC will face deeper correction waves," said CryptoQuant analyst Rei Researcher.
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Bitcoin's realized profit/loss ratio has dropped to -0.87 from -0.4 last week, a 125% increase, indicating heightened selling pressure. "Bitcoin is in a distribution phase with deteriorating breadth," said onchain data provider Glassnode.
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The Crypto Fear and Greed Index fell to 23 on Tuesday, returning to "extreme fear" territory. Spot Bitcoin ETFs have recorded 11 straight days of outflows, led by a $733.4 million outflow on May 27.
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Despite the downturn, Santiment reports that whale activity surged to its highest level since April 22, with most transactions now valued at $100,000 or more. "This is historically a strong sign of whale accumulation," Santiment said.
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