From Perfect Storm to Policy Pivot: What Comes Next for Bitcoin

Monthly Bitcoin Macro Investor – July 2026
From Perfect Storm to Policy Pivot: What Comes Next for Bitcoin | Bitwise

This report is for professional investors and information purposes only. Retail customers should not rely on it. Not investment advice or a personal recommendation. Cryptoassets are high risk and volatile and you may lose all capital invested. Please see full risk information at the end of this document.

  • Performance: Bitcoin underperformed in June as tighter financial conditions, renewed hawkish Fed repricing, and persistent institutional outflows weighed on performance. Despite a sharp late-month relief rally, price action remained consistent with a broader downtrend, with bitcoin still lacking the marginal demand impulse needed for a more durable recovery.
  • Macro: Tight financial conditions are weighing on both richly valued equities and Strategy's bitcoin buying, leaving institutional crypto demand at multi-year lows and major cryptoassets likely to keep consolidating until monetary policy decisively eases. That said, bitcoin already heavily discounts the deteriorating growth outlook - the "canary in the macro coal mine" - which may limit further downside under this thesis and may position it to outperform stocks, where high valuations now face a hawkish Fed. With institutional demand momentum so depressed and prone to mean-reversion, the risk from here looks asymmetrically skewed to the upside.
  • On-Chain: June’s contraction has forced a broad repricing across the digital asset market, yet early signs of structural improvement are emerging beneath the headline weakness. Volatility has reset across the curve, while continued Long-Term Holder maturation, resilient ETF capital, and strengthening high-conviction accumulation suggest that supply is migrating into less reactive, longer-horizon hands. At the same time, declining losses alongside improving broader-market momentum point toward growing seller exhaustion. However, these divergences remain unconfirmed and could still resolve to the downside. Across on-chain and technical pricing frameworks, the $53k–$62k region remains the key downside reference, while a durable return to risk-on conditions would likely require a decisive reclaim of the $71k–$77k cost-basis cluster.

Chart of the Month

Global rate hikes signal a sharp reversal in global semiconductor sales G20 Rate Cuts vs Semiconductor Billings YoY
Source: Bloomberg, Bitwise Europe; *including the Swiss National Bank

Performance

June proved to be another reminder that Bitcoin remains highly sensitive to the prevailing macro-liquidity regime.

The month was ultimately defined by the collision of three forces: a renewed “higher-for-longer” rate regime, stretched valuations across the AI and semiconductor complex, and a loss of momentum in one of the most important pillars of institutional bitcoin demand. In other words, June was not merely a crypto-specific drawdown. It was a broader repricing of duration, liquidity, and leverage.

Bitcoin started the month on a weak footing. Having opened near 77,000 USD, bitcoin declined by around -4% to approximately 73,800 USD, briefly falling below Strategy’s estimated average acquisition cost of around 75,700 USD. The move coincided with a firmer-than-expected core PCE print and continued outflows from US spot Bitcoin ETFs, once again highlighting bitcoin’s sensitivity to changes in rate expectations and institutional flow dynamics.

Traditional risk assets initially appeared more resilient. US equities remained close to record highs, with the S&P 500 trading near 7,580, even as the 30-year US Treasury yield rose above 5%, close to a two-decade high. This divergence did not last. As is often the case, bitcoin appeared to act as a canary in the macro coal mine, weakening before broader risk assets started to reflect the same tightening in financial conditions.

Within cryptoassets, Hyperliquid (HYPE) was the notable exception. HYPE reached fresh all-time highs near 70 USD, supported by idiosyncratic adoption, strong revenue momentum, and continued market share gains. However, this was the exception rather than the rule. The broader performance pattern was broadly consistent with Bitcoin’s historically weak “Sell in May and go away” seasonality.

The risk-off phase intensified as the month progressed. Bitcoin declined to a cycle low near 58,000 USD, while Ether fell towards 1,500 USD, its weakest level in roughly 13 months. More importantly, traditional risk assets also began to crack. The Nasdaq declined by -4.7% in a single session, while Korea’s KOSPI - one of the principal beneficiaries of the global AI trade - was halted multiple times after dropping by -10% in a single day.

The epicentre of the drawdown was therefore located precisely where positioning and valuations had become most stretched: the AI and semiconductor complex.

The proximate macro catalyst was a sharp upside surprise in US non-farm payrolls, which rose by +172k versus expectations of around +85k. This pushed market expectations away from rate cuts and back towards the possibility of renewed Fed tightening, lifting sovereign yields and pressuring long-duration assets.

This is consistent with a familiar macro pattern. Bitcoin tends to anticipate turning points in broader risk appetite, particularly when liquidity conditions deteriorate. 

Meanwhile, stress has already been visible below the surface in private credit and leveraged loans, suggesting that financial conditions have been tightening more than headline equity indices initially implied.

Sentiment reversed sharply towards the end of the month, triggering a relief rally across cryptoassets. The prospect of a US-Iran framework, an extension of the ceasefire, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and the possibility of sanctions relief helped remove a significant geopolitical risk premium from markets. Safe-haven assets were sold, with gold declining towards 4,000 USD/oz, while equities and bitcoin recovered.

After finding support around 61,000 USD, bitcoin rebounded to approximately 65,400 USD. The move was also supported by extremely depressed sentiment, with several indicators reaching their most bearish levels since the February capitulation. However, we would caution that this still looked like a relief rally within an overarching downtrend rather than the start of a durable trend reversal.

The AI complex remained the epicentre of volatility. Broadcom, for instance, exceeded expectations and reported AI-chip revenue growth of 143%, yet the stock declined by more than -12% in a single session. In our view, this disconnect speaks less to deteriorating fundamentals and more to the degree of valuation excess already embedded in the sector.

This reinforces our relative-value view. Based on the Mayer Multiple, bitcoin has fallen below 1.0 relative to Nvidia - a level that has historically been associated with accumulation zone. By contrast, the most crowded corner of the equity market continues to trade at a sizeable premium to its own 200-day moving average. As a result, the relative-value gap between bitcoin and AI-related equities remains among the widest in its history.

The decisive macro catalyst of the month was the June FOMC meeting, which also marked Kevin Warsh’s debut as Fed Chair. The Fed kept interest rates unchanged at 3.50%–3.75%, its fourth consecutive hold, with a unanimous 12–0 vote. However, the Committee removed its easing bias from the statement, triggering a sharp hawkish repricing and a flattening of the yield curve.

Warsh struck a clear regime-change tone on inflation discipline, stating that the Fed would “fix five years of misses on inflation.” The updated dot plot now implies a Fed Funds Rate of around 3.8% by the end of 2026, up from 3.4% in March. This represents a material shift from an implied cut to an implied hike. Moreover, 17 of 18 FOMC participants now judge inflation risks to be tilted to the upside.

The reason why that is important for bitcoin is that the number of global net rate cuts (cuts minus hikes) tends to lead the global business cycle by a couple of months.

In fact, due to rate hikes by major central banks like the ECB and Bank of Japan this indicator already signals a sharp reversal in global semiconductor sales (Chart-of-the-month). This could jeopardise the ongoing AI boom and, by derivation, still implies elevated downside risks for bitcoin as well due to relatively high correlations.

In any case, the hawkish Fed surprise sent shockwaves through bitcoin’s emerging digital credit markets. Strategy’s perpetual preferred instrument, STRC, which has become a key benchmark for bitcoin-linked credit risk, traded down to an all-time intraday low of 82.5. According to market participants, the move was likely driven by forced deleveraging rather than a fundamental repricing of Strategy’s credit risk.

This matters because Strategy has been the dominant institutional buyer of bitcoin in 2026. Year-to-date, the company has accumulated approximately 174,300 BTC. Based on our estimates, around 55% of these purchases - roughly 96,000 BTC - were funded via STRC preferred equity issuance, while approximately 45% - around 77,500 BTC - were funded via MSTR common stock issuance.

With global bitcoin ETPs experiencing heavy outflows, Strategy’s buying has effectively accounted for the majority of positive institutional demand from treasury companies and ETPs combined. Put differently, one of the most important engines of institutional bitcoin demand is now showing signs of strain.

In our view, this is the key takeaway from June. Bitcoin’s drawdown was not simply a function of weak sentiment or crypto-native deleveraging. It reflected a broader tightening in macro-liquidity conditions, a repricing of crowded AI equity exposure, and a weakening of marginal institutional bitcoin demand.

As long as STRC remains under pressure and global bitcoin ETPs continue to see outflows, Strategy’s ability to accumulate bitcoin aggressively is likely to remain constrained. This suggests that bitcoin may struggle to establish a more durable bottom until either financial conditions ease again or Strategy improves the attractiveness of its preferred equity instruments, potentially via a higher dividend.

That said, we continue to view the risk of forced bitcoin selling by Strategy as relatively low. The company has recently increased its dividend coverage to around 9.8 months of USD liquidity, which should allow it to meet ongoing dividend obligations without immediately raising fresh capital.

Overall, June strengthened our view that bitcoin remains caught between deteriorating macro-liquidity conditions on the one hand and increasingly attractive relative-value signals on the other. 

In the near term, the balance of risks remains tilted towards volatility. However, if financial conditions begin to ease again, the current dislocation between bitcoin and the broader AI-led equity complex could become an important source of upside asymmetry.

Cross Asset Performance (MtD) Cross Asset MtD Performance
Source: Bloomberg, Coinmarketcap; performances in USD except Bund Future
Cross Asset Performance (YtD) Cross Asset YtD Performance
Source: Bloomberg, Coinmarketcap; performances in USD except Bund Future

Bottom line: Bitcoin underperformed in June as tighter financial conditions, renewed hawkish Fed repricing, and persistent institutional outflows weighed on performance. Despite a sharp late-month relief rally, price action remained consistent with a broader downtrend, with bitcoin still lacking the marginal demand impulse needed for a more durable recovery.

Macro Environment

The biggest directional catalyst in June was probably the FOMC meeting.

Warsh has shown himself to be a hawk - consistent with the risk we flagged in the previous Bitcoin Macro Investor.

As far as the FOMC meeting is concerned, three takeaways from the June meeting stand out:

First, the hawkish surprise: the Fed held rates steady at 3.50-3.75% - its fourth consecutive hold and a unanimous 12–0 in Warsh's first meeting as Chair - but stripped the easing bias from its statement, triggering a sharp hawkish repricing of Fed rate expectations and a flattening of the yield curve.

With markets having already priced out the cuts they had assumed and at times pushing hike odds above 50% for later in 2026 as April CPI ran at 3.8% year-on-year, the hottest in nearly three years.

Second, the communication on inflation: the FOMC reiterated it is strongly committed to returning inflation to its 2% objective, and Warsh struck a regime-change tone on inflation discipline, stressing that 2% is the Fed's long-held target – “We’ll fix five years of misses on inflation”.

Third, the Summary of Economic Projections (aka "dot plot"): the median participant now sees the Fed Funds Rate ending 2026 around 3.8%, up from 3.4% in March - a flip from an implied cut to an implied hike - with nine of 18 participants pencilling in at least one hike this year and 17 of 18 judging inflation risks to the upside.

The risk from here is that there is still significant repricing risk in Fed Funds future expectations on the back of the recent rise in inflation (ISM prices paid) - particularly if the Fed is serious about bringing (core) inflation back to 2%.

There is a repricing risk in Fed rate expectations due to ISM price expectations Implied change Fed Funds Target Rate vs ISM Prices
Source: Bloomberg, Bitwise Europe; ISM Manufacturing Prices lagged by 6 months

Besides, both global net rate cuts and the yield curve already imply a tightening in financial conditions that may show up in long leading indicators (“animal spirits”) like the Philly Fed future expectations.

G20 net rate cuts (shifted +6M) vs Philly Fed 6M Forecast G20 Rate Cuts vs PhillyFed 6M Forecast
Source: Bloomberg, Bitwise Europe; *including the Swiss National Bank

The number of global net rate cuts by major central banks tends to lead forward-looking indicators by around 6 months due to its effect on so-called excess liquidity growth – i.e. liquid money supply growth in excess of real underlying economic activity.

US Excess Liquidity vs Central bank rate cuts Global Net Rate Cuts vs Excess Liquidity
Source: Bloomberg, Bitwise Europe;*G20 including SNB

The main issue is that the sharp reversal in global monetary policy also puts the current semiconductor and AI boom at risk as global central bank rate changes tend to lead global semiconductor sales growth as well. Semiconductors have been the key growth engine during the current expansion. In general, semiconductor sales tend to be a good bellwether for the global business cycle.

Global rate hikes signal a sharp reversal in global semiconductor sales G20 Rate Cuts vs Semiconductor Billings YoY
Source: Bloomberg, Bitwise Europe; *including the Swiss National Bank

Global growth expectations are essentially priced to perfection at this point, leaving a key risk of a repricing of global growth expectations (PC1) and of high-frequency macro indicators to the downside.

Macro Indicator vs High Frequency Macro Indicators Macro vs High Frequency Macro Indicators
Source: Bloomberg, Bitwise Europe
*Sentix Global Expectations, ISM New Orders/Inventories, BBG US ECO Surprises, NAHB Housing, Empire State
CRB Raw Industrials, Copper/Gold, Baltic Dry, AUD/JPY, EM/DM Equities, US Cyclicals/Defensives

The good news is that this has likely been anticipated to a large extent by Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is still heavily discounting the prevailing growth outlook, which limits further downside should a deceleration materialise - the “canary in the macro / liquidity coal mine”. 

This is a thesis we have reiterated repeatedly in previous editions of the Bitcoin Macro Investor and which we think still holds. That may explain why bitcoin has continued to trade at or above the $60k level despite increasing downside risks.

Macro Indicator vs Global Growth priced by Bitcoin* Macro vs PC1 Bitcoin
Macro Indicator: Sentix Global Expectations, Philly Fed & Empire State Future Activity, NAHB Housing Index, ISM Man. New Orders/Inventories, BBG Econ Surprise Index;
*based on PCA factor loadings of BTC to global growth expectations;
Source: Bloomberg, Bitwise Europe

The issue is that tight financial conditions are now meeting high stock valuations that face serious downside risks, especially considering a deceleration in token expenditures and GPU rental demand. DRAM prices have continued to go up but they generally lag the developments in the aforementioned indicators.

Some AI-KPIs have recently decelerated AI Key Charts to Watch
Source: Bloomberg, Bitwise Europe

The same tightening in financial conditions is also hitting the Hyperscalers. For instance, this is visible in elevated Credit Default Swaps (CDS) on Hyperscalers like Oracle (ORCL) but also in option implied volatilities of hyperscaler stock prices that also provide information on potential default risk based on the so-called Merton Model. In that context, Oracle’s 1-year implied volatility has recently increased to the highest level ever recorded.

This is also consistent with the bear market in bitcoin observed since October last year which coincided with a deterioration in credit quality of hyperscaler companies.

Deteriorating credit quality in hyperscalers is signalling tighter financial conditions Bitcoin YoY vs Hyperscaler Credit Quality
Source: Bloomberg, Bitwise Europe
Credit index: equal-weighted 1Y Merton (1974) distance to default of MSFT, AMZN, GOOG, META, ORCL; Higher = safer
Derived from market cap, 1Y ATM implied vol, and balance-sheet leverage

Our key message is that: There is more to it than a general tightening in financial conditions.

We have shown in previous editions of the Bitcoin Macro Investor that credit conditions in the US have deteriorated judging by the underperformance of private credit, leveraged loans and business development companies – this deterioration in credit conditions has been consistent with the bear market in bitcoin (against gold) since October last year.

That is important in the context of a potential stock market correction that may also affect bitcoin and other major cryptoassets. Notably, the correlation between BTC and stocks has increased recently.

Rolling correlation: S&P 500 (3M) Rolling Correlation 60 BTC ETH SPX
Source: Bloomberg, Bitwise Europe

On the dynamics of a potential tradfi stock-market crash, it helps to separate the necessary from the sufficient condition. The necessary condition — high valuations — is firmly in place: the S&P 500 Shiller P/E (CAPE) is around ~41, near its second-highest reading in history and just shy of the ~44 dot-com all-time high, while the Buffett Indicator (US market cap to GDP) sits at roughly 234%, an all-time high well above its prior peaks.

The sufficient condition is a tightening in financial conditions - and the hawkish surprise from the Fed is a key risk in exactly that context.

We therefore reiterate the view that stocks have more downside than BTC at this point. In relative terms, we would already expect BTC to outperform - a point also captured by the relative Mayer Multiple between bitcoin and Nvidia.

Bitcoin is relatively cheap compared to Nvidia Bitoin vs Nvidia NVDA Mayer Multiple
Source: Bloomberg, Bitwise Europe

As we elaborated in our latest Crypto Market Compass, on the Mayer Multiple (price relative to the 200-day moving average) bitcoin has fallen back below 1.0 — historically an accumulation zone — while the most crowded corner of the equity market continues to trade at a sizeable premium to its own 200-day average, leaving the relative-value gap among the widest in its history.

A further issue is that tighter financial conditions appear to influence Strategy’s bitcoin buying, the key marginal buyer of bitcoin in 2026. As a result, institutional demand has decelerated significantly.

This matters because Strategy has been the dominant institutional buyer of bitcoin throughout 2026 to date, largely driven by sizeable STRC issuances.

To be more precise, Strategy has accumulated 174,300 BTC year-to-date. By our estimates, roughly 55% of that (~96,000 BTC) was financed through STRC preferred equity issuances, while the remaining 45% (~77,500 BTC) came from MSTR common stock issuances.

With global bitcoin ETPs experiencing heavy outflows, Strategy's purchases have effectively accounted for virtually all of the positive institutional bitcoin demand in 2026 across both treasury companies and ETPs.

Put differently, one of the central drivers of bitcoin's institutional demand - namely Strategy's STRC - is losing steam. A slowdown in Strategy's bitcoin purchases looks fairly probable in the near term, at least until the company raises its dividend or financial conditions loosen once more (i.e. a sustained decline in sovereign yields).

Broadly speaking, we view the risk of forced bitcoin selling by Strategy over the very short term as relatively low, given that the company recently boosted its dividend coverage to around 9.8 months of USD liquidity - enough to meet ongoing dividend obligations without needing to raise additional capital.

On the whole, our macro-level interpretation is that bitcoin and other large cryptoassets could keep consolidating in the short term until we see a clear loosening in monetary policy and financial conditions.

Even so, institutional demand momentum has already fallen to multi-year lows. While downside risks haven't disappeared, this suggests the risk is asymmetrically tilted to the upside, since institutional demand growth has a tendency to mean-revert over time. In simple terms, a recovery in institutional demand growth from current levels seems more likely than a further deterioration.

Bitcoin Price vs. Net Institutional Demand BTC Price vs Institutional Demand LineChart Long
Source: Bloomberg, Glassnode, Bitwise Europe
Net Institutional Demand shown as 1-month change
Net Institutional Demand = Global ETPs + Treasury Companies – New Supply

Bottom Line: Tight financial conditions are weighing on both richly valued equities and Strategy's bitcoin buying, leaving institutional crypto demand at multi-year lows and major cryptoassets likely to keep consolidating until monetary policy decisively eases. That said, bitcoin already heavily discounts the deteriorating growth outlook - the "canary in the macro coal mine" - which may limit further downside under this thesis and may position it to outperform stocks, where high valuations now face a hawkish Fed. With institutional demand momentum so depressed and prone to mean-reversion, the risk from here looks asymmetrically skewed to the upside.

On-Chain Developments

Measuring the move

June has been an extremely challenging month for Bitcoin and the broader digital asset complex, with Bitcoin falling to a fresh cycle low of $59k as liquidity conditions across the macro economy continue to tighten.

To quantify the severity of the move, the 7-day drawdown into the $60k region recorded a -$12.9k decline, equivalent to a -17.5% drop. Only 0.3% and 2.5% of trading periods have recorded larger absolute and relative drawdowns, respectively, highlighting the scale of the contraction.

Bitcoin: 7D Price Change (USD) 1 BTC-Price-7D-Change-USD-6Y
Source: Glassnode, Bitwise Europe.

To further investigate the magnitude of the drawdown, we can assess the 7-day change in realised volatility across multiple tenors.

Tenor 7-Day Change Percentile
1-Week +101.7% 93rd
2-Week +61.1% 95th
1-Month +40.5% 97th
3-Month +1.5% 66th
6-Month +1.8% 83rd
1-Year +2.2% 97th

This underscores the scale of the volatility shock, with realised volatility rising across the full curve. While the largest percentage increases were concentrated at the short end, the elevated percentile rankings across the 6-month and 1-year tenors indicate that the adjustment was not purely local, but reflected a broader repricing of volatility conditions across multiple time horizons.

Bitcoin: Realised Volatility — 7D Change Percentiles 2 BTC RV Change Percentiles
Source: Glassnode, Bitwise Europe. As of: 07 Jun 2026.

Sophisticated Investors Remain Patient

Despite the intensity of the drawdown, a notable degree of resilience can be observed across more sophisticated investors in both on- and off-chain markets, who remain broadly steadfast.

The clearest on-chain example is the Long-Term Holder (LTH) cohort, representing mature investors who have held their coins for more than 155 days. Notably, their share of circulating supply continues to rise, reaching 74% (14.8mn BTC), suggesting that coins are maturing into the cohort faster than they are being spent.

Increasing the granularity, the majority of LTH spending is originating from coins aged 6–12 months. This indicates that the primary source of sell-side pressure is coming from investors who acquired coins during the market’s topping formation and the ensuing bear market, while the more tenured holders remain largely inactive and unconvinced of distributing their coins at the prevailing price range.

Bitcoin: Long-Term Holder Supply Momentum 3 BTC Price Log - LTH Supply vs 30D Change
Source: Glassnode, Bitwise Europe.

Furthermore, whilst ETFs have experienced their largest outflows to date, when assessing the cumulative capital invested across the ETF complex, the total has declined by approximately 17% from its all-time high of $60.2bn. When compared with Bitcoin’s 50% price drawdown, this relatively modest reduction in invested capital suggests that ETF investors have maintained a notable degree of conviction despite the challenging market conditions.

Bitcoin: US Spot ETF Cumulative Net Flows 4 BTC Price - ETF Cumulative Flows & Drawdown
Source: Glassnode, Bitwise Europe. US Spot Bitcoin ETF net flows (daily). Cumulative sum from ETF launch (Feb 2024). Drawdown measured from cumulative flow all-time high.

With large portions of supply remaining static and appearing to require greater price volatility before becoming active, capitulation remains concentrated among the most distressed investors with their coins are increasingly migrating into the hands of longer-horizon, value-oriented holders.

To quantify this dynamic, we introduce a new metric: High-Conviction Accumulation. The framework builds on the Accumulation Trend Score, which evaluates market-wide accumulation by assessing positive and negative balance changes across different wallet-size cohorts.

However, accumulation near market tops does not carry the same significance as accumulation near market bottoms. We therefore weight accumulation behaviour against prevailing market valuations to identify periods when investors are accumulating most aggressively at historically depressed prices. This helps distinguish conviction-led accumulation from buying driven primarily by price momentum.

Notably, the High-Conviction Accumulation indicator is surging, suggesting that coins are increasingly being acquired at low valuations, supporting the notion that the composition of the investor base is shifting from short-term market tourists towards high-conviction holders.

Bitcoin: Value Accumulation 5 BTC Price - Value Accumulation
Source: Glassnode, Bitwise Europe. Value Accumulation weights Glassnode's Accumulation Trend Score by Bitcoin's normalised AVIV valuation, so accumulation at low valuations counts more than accumulation at high ones.

From the Ashes

While the market remains fragile and continues to digest the impact of the recent move, early signs of improving market structure are beginning to emerge.

The first piece of evidence is that average unrealised losses across the investor base are beginning to decline, despite price setting new lower lows. This suggests that aggregate cost bases are improving as investors with weaker acquisition prices capitulate and exit the market, allowing coins to migrate toward holders accumulating at lower prices. Over time, this gradually improves the profitability of the investor base.

Bitcoin: MVRV Momentum 6 BTC Price Log - MVRV vsY Average
Source: Glassnode, Bitwise Europe.

A similar phenomenon can be observed across net realised profit and loss. Notably, the magnitude of net realised losses has also begun to decline, inferring that a degree of seller exhaustion may be emerging.

Bitcoin: Net Realised Profit / Loss (7-Day SMA) 7 BTC Price Log - Net Realised PL
Source: Glassnode, Bitwise Europe.

This dynamic is not isolated to Bitcoin and is also visible across the broader digital asset market. Median SOPR, which captures the median profit or loss multiple realised by investors across the wider digital asset complex, is forming a similar higher-low structure. This provides further evidence that the severity of loss-taking across the broader market is beginning to moderate.

Digital Asset Market: Total Market Cap & Median SOPR 8 Total Market Cap - Median SOPR
Source: Glassnode, Bitwise Europe. SOPR = Spent Output Profit Ratio. Values above 1 indicate coins sold at a profit on average; below 1 at a loss. 7-day EMA.

Furthermore, the 90-day RSI for total digital asset market capitalisation displays a similar structure, with momentum improving across the wider ecosystem.

Historically, positive divergences between declining prices and improving underlying market indicators, such as stronger investor positioning, diminishing losses, and improving RSI momentum, have been associated with a more constructive market backdrop. However, these divergences can still resolve to the downside. The key consideration is whether the improving structure remains intact or is invalidated by a subsequent lower low.

Digital Asset Market: Total Market Cap & 90-Day RSI 9 Total Market Cap - 90d RSI
Source: Glassnode, Bitwise Europe.

Bottom Formation Model Updates

Providing an update on our Coins Transferred Across Bear Markets framework, we continue to monitor how supply is redistributed between the cycle peak and the eventual market trough.

As this process advances, incremental sell-side pressure typically begins to diminish, gradually reducing the amount of supply available for distribution. When demand starts to outweigh this increasingly constrained supply, price momentum can shift higher, returning large portions of the market to profitability.

The framework compares the supply distribution at the ATH with the current structure, filtering out routine transactional churn to isolate net coin displacement. To date, approximately 4.3mn BTC has been redistributed during the current cycle.

In previous cycles, macro bottoms have generally formed once cumulative redistribution reached approximately 4.5–5mn BTC, suggesting the market is approaching a similar degree of saturation.

Coins Redistributed Across Bear Markets 10 URPD BearMarkets CoinsRedistributed
Source: Glassnode, Bitwise Europe. Our methodology defines coins redistributed
as half the sum of absolute changes across on-chain volume profile buckets
from the current cycle top against the latest observation (dividing by two corrects
for the double-counting of simultaneous inflows and outflows across buckets),
compares that measure against prior bull-market top to bear-market bottom
redistribution windows.

A complementary way to assess the transfer of coins from weaker to stronger hands is by measuring the share of profit- and loss-bearing supply held by Long-Term Holders (LTHs).

As the proportion of total loss-bearing supply held by LTHs increases (calculated as LTH supply in loss divided by total supply in loss), it suggests that underwater coins are increasingly ageing into the cohort rather than being spent. Over time, this contributes to a shift in investor composition (as previously highlighted), as more reactive short-term participants exit and longer-horizon holders absorb a growing share of supply.

Historically, when the LTH share of loss-bearing supply exceeds its share of profit-bearing supply, it has been associated with a transition toward a new market cycle. Under these conditions, Long-Term Holders dominate both profitable and underwater supply, leaving a greater proportion of coins in comparatively inert hands. As a result, more substantial price moves may be required to incentivise distribution.

At present, the LTH shares of profit- and loss-bearing supply have begun to diverge following the recent drawdown, suggesting that the market has not yet transitioned back into a risk-on regime. However, the two measures remain in close proximity, making this an important relationship to monitor over the coming months.

Bitcoin: LTH Share of Supply in Profit & Loss 11 BTC Price Log - LTH Share Profit Loss
Source: Glassnode, Bitwise Europe. LTH Profit Share = LTH Profit / (LTH + STH Profit).
LTH Loss Share = LTH Loss / (LTH + STH Loss). 7-day EMA. Illustrative modelling only - not a forecast

Key Pricing Levels

With substantial volatility now discharged, the market remains paradoxically fragile while also exhibiting early signs of improving structure. It is therefore prudent to assess price behaviour around several key levels to better understand the prevailing balance between supply and demand dynamics.

  • The True Market Mean at $76.9k estimates the average acquisition price of active investors by excluding supply considered lost or dormant, such as early miner and Satoshi-era coins.
  • The Short-Term Holder cost basis (STH-CB) at $70.7k represents the average purchase price of newer market entrants and has historically acted as a delineator between local bull and bear regimes.

The first rung of meaningful resistance is therefore likely to sit near the STH-CB at $71.5k, while a decisive break above the True Market Mean at $77.2k would provide stronger evidence of a meaningful shift in investor sentiment. The further price moves above these levels, and the longer it remains there, the more substantial the improvement in market structure is likely to be.

Alternatively, repeated rejection from these levels would suggest that the market is not yet ready to transition back into a risk-on regime from either a local or macro perspective.

Bitcoin: On-Chain Momentum Levels 12 Price Onchain
Source: Glassnode, Bitwise Europe | Window: 12 months

On the downside, our base case is that the market finds terminal support somewhere between the 200-week moving average near $62.4k and the Realised Price at $53.3k, which represents the average acquisition price of market participants.

Both levels have repeatedly provided important support during previous bear-market phases. As a result, price behaviour within this zone will offer critical insight into whether the current drawdown is approaching a more mature stage.

Notably, price entered this range during the most recent capitulation, suggesting that a substantial degree of market damage has already been absorbed. At the same time, the supply metrics presented above indicate that the remaining supply overhang appears to be progressively absorbed.

Bitcoin: Realized Price and 200w Moving Average 13 Price Realized 200WMA log 125ticks fullMA
Source: Glassnode, Bitwise Europe | Window: 14 years

Bottom Line: June’s contraction has forced a broad repricing across the digital asset market, yet early signs of structural improvement are emerging beneath the headline weakness. Volatility has repriced across the curve, while continued Long-Term Holder maturation, resilient ETF capital, and strengthening high-conviction accumulation suggest that supply is migrating into less reactive, longer-horizon hands. At the same time, declining losses alongside improving broader-market momentum point toward growing seller exhaustion, however, these divergences remain unconfirmed and could still resolve to the downside. Across on-chain and technical pricing frameworks, the $53k–$62k region remains the key downside reference, while a durable return to risk-on conditions would likely require a decisive reclaim of the $71k–$77k cost-basis cluster.

Bottom Line

  • Performance: Bitcoin underperformed in June as tighter financial conditions, renewed hawkish Fed repricing, and persistent institutional outflows weighed on performance. Despite a sharp late-month relief rally, price action remained consistent with a broader downtrend, with bitcoin still lacking the marginal demand impulse needed for a more durable recovery.
  • Macro: Tight financial conditions are weighing on both richly valued equities and Strategy's bitcoin buying, leaving institutional crypto demand at multi-year lows and major cryptoassets likely to keep consolidating until monetary policy decisively eases. That said, bitcoin already heavily discounts the deteriorating growth outlook - the "canary in the macro coal mine" - which may limit further downside under this thesis and may position it to outperform stocks, where high valuations now face a hawkish Fed. With institutional demand momentum so depressed and prone to mean-reversion, the risk from here looks asymmetrically skewed to the upside.
  • On-Chain: June’s contraction has forced a broad repricing across the digital asset market, yet early signs of structural improvement are emerging beneath the headline weakness. Volatility has reset across the curve, while continued Long-Term Holder maturation, resilient ETF capital, and strengthening high-conviction accumulation suggest that supply is migrating into less reactive, longer-horizon hands. At the same time, declining losses alongside improving broader-market momentum point toward growing seller exhaustion. However, these divergences remain unconfirmed and could still resolve to the downside. Across on-chain and technical pricing frameworks, the $53k–$62k region remains the key downside reference, while a durable return to risk-on conditions would likely require a decisive reclaim of the $71k–$77k cost-basis cluster.

Appendix

Cryptoasset Market Overview

Bitcoin Performance Bitcoin Performance
Source: Glassnode, Bitwise Europe
Ethereum Performance Ethereum Performance
Source: Glassnode, Bitwise Europe
Ethereum vs Bitcoin Relative Performance Ethereum vs Bitcoin Performance
Source: Glassnode, Bitwise Europe
Altseason Index Altseason Index
Source: Coinmetrics, Bitwise Europe
Bitcoin vs Crypto Dispersion Index Crypto Dispersion vs Bitcoin short
Source: Glassnode, Coinmetrics, Bitwise Europe; Despersion = (1 - Average Altcoin Correlation with Bitcoin)

Cryptoassets & Macroeconomy

Macro Factor Pricing Regimes All PCs
Source: Bloomberg, Bitwise Europe
How much of Bitcoin's performance can be explained by macro factors? Regimes Rolling R2 Bitcoin short
Source: Bloomberg, Bitwise Europe

Cryptoassets & Multiasset Portfolios

Multiasset Performance with Bitcoin (BTC) Multiasset with BTC Performance Table
Source: Bloomberg, Bitwise Europe; Monthly rebalancing; Sharpe Ratio was calculated with 3M USD Cash Index as assumed risk-free rate; BTC allocation is taken out of equity allocation of 60%, bond allocation remains at 40%; Past performance not indicative of future returns.
Rolling correlation: S&P 500 Rolling Correlation 60 BTC ETH SPX
Source: Bloomberg, Bitwise Europe
Rolling correlation: Bund Future Rolling Correlation 60 BTC ETH Bund
Source: Bloomberg, Bitwise Europe
Rolling correlation: Gold Rolling Correlation 60 BTC ETH Gold
Source: Bloomberg, Bitwise Europe
Rolling correlation: Dollar Index (DXY) Rolling Correlation 60 BTC ETH DXY
Source: Bloomberg, Bitwise Europe
Cross Asset Correlation Matrix Cross Asset Correlation Matrix
Correlations of weekly returns; Source: Bloomberg, Bitwise Europe
Earliest data start: 2011-01-03; data as of 2026-06-02

Cryptoasset Valuations

Bitcoin: Composite Valuation Indicator BTC Composite Valuation Line
Source: Coinmetrics, Bitwise Europe
Bitcoin: Valuation Metrics BTC Valuation Metrics Bar
Source: Coinmetrics, Bitwise Europe

On-Chain Fundamentals

Bitcoin: Closing Price BTC Realized Cap HODL Waves
Source: Glassnode
Bitcoin's supply scarcity is more pronounsed that during the last cycle Bitcoin Supply Scarcity Dashboard
Source: Glassnode, Bitwise Europe
Bitcoin Long-term Holder (LTH) Dashboard Bitcoin LTH Dashboard
Source: Glassnode, Bitwise Europe
Bitcoin Short-term Holder (STH) Dashboard Bitcoin STH Dashboard
Source: Glassnode, Bitwise Europe
Bitcoin: Price vs Average Accumulatio Score BTC Accumulation Score vs Price
Source: Glassnode, Bitwise Europe
Bitcoin: Steady increase in scarcity will provide a tailwind for price appreciations Bitcoin BAERM Forecast narrow
Source: Coinmetrics, Bitwise Europe; @ciphernom

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