The Bitcoin price started 2025 with an uninspiring performance in January, moving mostly sideways throughout the month. The premier cryptocurrency’s negative start to February — dropping around $92,000 on the first day — was a sign of what’s to come later in the month.

The Bitcoin price has since slipped beneath $80,000, posting one of its worst February performances in recent years. While several experts have shared their thoughts and analysis on this market downturn, analysts at crypto exchange Coinbase are among the latest to weigh on the latest Bitcoin February record.

Bitcoin’s Weekly Decline: What’s Causing The Drop?

In the latest market report, Coinbase analysts David Han and David Duong revealed that the crypto and Bitcoin markets are in a somewhat uncertain state. This shift in the market condition follows the $1.4 billion Bybit hack and the decline in the macroeconomic environment.

According to Coinbase analysts, the latest trade tariff news and decline in the Consumer Sentiment Index impacted the crypto and United States stock markets earlier in the week. However, the equities market bounced back due to improved investor sentiment after the US House of Representatives approved the year’s budget during the week.

The Bitcoin price, on the other hand, didn’t show this same level of resilience in the last seven-day period, struggling to reclaim some of its crucial psychological levels above the $95,000 level. Now, the flagship cryptocurrency trades just above the $80,000 mark, reflecting an over 12% decline in the past week.

Han and Duong believe that the failure of the Bitcoin price from the early-week blues was due to the absence of positive near-term catalysts for the crypto space. Additionally, the analysts highlighted the lack of technical support within the $80,000 – $95,000 region.

Source: SoSoValue

The current weak investor sentiment is spotlighted by the heavy outflows suffered by the US-based spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, with over $2.9 billion withdrawn in the past week. “Concurrently, lending markets have echoed the risk-off sentiment as leverage diminished and funding rates declined across the board,” the analyst added.

According to the report, nearly $2 billion in perpetual futures were liquidated at the start of the week, significantly decreasing the leverage in the market. Meanwhile, the CME basis for both Bitcoin and Ethereum has dropped to 5%, the lowest since March 2023.

Bitcoin Price At A Glance

As of this writing, Bitcoin is valued at around $85,200, reflecting a 0.3% decline in the past 24 hours.

The price of BTC forms a doji candlestick on the daily timeframe | Source: BTCUSDT chart on TradingView

Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView

The Bitcoin (BTC) market has been highly volatile in the last week and under a strong bearish influence. In this period, Bitcoin has crashed by over 15% falling as low as $80,000. Interestingly, blockchain analytics firm Glassnode has provided an in-depth analysis of investors’ behavior amidst this price decline highlighting the cohort with the largest realized losses.

BTC 1-Day To 1-Week Holders Lead Market Liquidation Pressure

On Friday, February 28, Bitcoin dipped below $80,000 reaching a price level last seen in November 2024. In response, the BTC market recorded $685 million in realized losses in addition to the initial $2.16 billion between February 25-27. In a recent X post, Glassnode analysts dived into the market sell-off on Friday, indicating that this recent capitulation is primarily concentrated among short-term holders (STH) who are realizing losses at a much higher rate than long-term holders.

From Glassnode’s report, the most affected cohort of STH has been new market entrants over the past week as indicated in the following data: 1-day to 1-week holders with $238.8 million in losses,1-week to 1-month holders ($187.6 million), 1-month to 3-month holders ($132.4 million) and 24-hour buyers ($104.9 million). However, it’s worth noting that holders from the past 3-6 months also experienced a significant spike in realized losses. This group recorded $ 12.7 million in realized losses on Friday, representing a 95.4% gain from the previous day.

Looking further, Glassnode’s report also realized the price dip on Friday also pushed the Bitcoin loss realization average rate to $57.1 million per hour.  The realization speed per cohort of the STH – who account for the majority of the market losses is as follows: 1-day to 1-week holders with $19.9 million/hour, 1-week to 1-month holders ($13.9 million/hour), 1-month to 3-month holders ($14.2 million/hour) and 24-hour buyers ($8.04 million/hour).

As expected, the 1-day to 1-week cohort is the dominant force in driving liquidity pressure with a loss realization rate almost double the next largest group.

Bitcoin Long-Term Holders Stay Resolute

According to more data from  Glassnode’s report, Bitcoin long-term holders from the last 6-12 months have shown minimal, negligible loss realization despite a widespread market capitulation.

This development indicates that the longer-term investors are largely unbothered by the recent sell-off and price correction with strong confidence for a market rebound. At press time, Bitcoin trades at $85,200 following some price recovery on Friday. However, its weekly losses remain at 11.34% indicating the current bearish move in the market.

Featured image from Getty Images, chart from Tradingview

Head of Macro Research at Global Market Investor Julien Bittel has provided an interesting insight into the Bitcoin market following a major price loss in the past week. In a bold move, the financial analyst has backed the premier cryptocurrency to soon pull off a rebound linking the recent price fall to broader macroeconomic conditions.

Why Bitcoin’s Drop Below $80,000 Could Have Marked The End Of The Sell-Off

Over the past week, the BTC market registered a significant bearish price action, with prices falling from over $96,000 to below $80,000. In an X post on February 28, Bittel attributed this price fall to the tightening of financial conditions in Q4 2024, which has drained liquidity from the market, making it harder for speculative assets like Bitcoin to maintain upward momentum.

When market liquidity reduces, economic surprises slow leading to concerns about a potential recession and ultimately inducing market uncertainty and a risk-off behavior. However, Bittel expects these investors’ sentiment to reverse in March making a case for a Bitcoin rebound.

The analyst notes that market conditions over the past two weeks have been easing rapidly as indicated by a weakening dollar, decreasing bond yields, and falling oil prices. These macroeconomic developments suggest that liquidity is returning to the financial system signaling a potential rebound in market sentiment.

Notably, with Bitcon’s recent dip below $80,000, Julien Bittel states the effects of tightening liquidity conditions have been fully reflected. And while a potential price fall is still possible, sentiment indicators signal little room for further downside. For example, Bitcoin’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) has recently touched 23 representing its most oversold level since August 2023. Such market conditions back the notion of incoming price rebound.

The BTC Market: A Contrarian Opportunity?

In the final remarks of an intriguing analysis, Bittel has urged investors against being too comfortably bearish but rather pushed for a greedy mindset amidst the widespread market fear.

Notably, blockchain analytics firm Santiment notes that the “market crowd” tends to go wrong on predictions i.e. when traders are forecasting Bitcoin to go lower, prices go up and vice versa based on historical data. Therefore, the current Bitcoin market may present a unique opportunity for accumulation despite general expectations of a sustained price dip.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $84,750 following some price gains on Friday amidst a positive US inflation report. With a market cap of $1.68 trillion, the premier cryptocurrency remains the largest digital asset with a staggering market dominance of 60%.

Featured image from The Independent, chart from Tradingview