Bitcoin Crashes Below $68,000, Down 13% in a Week

Bitcoin price fell below $68,000 on Tuesday, its lowest level since early April, battered by a confluence of forces including Strategy's first Bitcoin sale in three and a half years, a record ETF outflow streak, fresh on-chain movement from the long-dormant Mt. Gox estate, and renewed geopolitical jitters. The drop put BTC down roughly 13% on the week, with intraday lows touching $69,325 to $69,690 on exchanges like Bitstamp before recovering to the mid-$67,000s. The selloff also nuked nearly $800 million in leveraged positions across the broader crypto market, according to CoinGlass data.

The catalyst that rattled markets was a disclosure from Strategy filed with the SEC on Monday. The company sold 32 Bitcoin between May 26 and May 31, fetching an average price of $77,135 per coin for total proceeds of roughly $2.5 million. The sale is intended to fund distributions on STRC, Strategy's perpetual preferred stock carrying an 11.5% annual variable dividend. The numbers are small in isolation — 32 BTC represents just 0.004% of Strategy's total holdings of 843,706 Bitcoin, purchased at an average price of $75,699 per coin. But the symbolic weight hit hard: it is the company's first reported net reduction in Bitcoin holdings through a standalone SEC filing, and the market responded in kind. MSTR stock fell 5.85% on Monday and roughly 6% in Tuesday morning trading. Strategy (MSTR) and Strive (ASST) are both trading nearly 10% lower as Bitcoin price fluctuations expose the leverage in their "Bitcoin treasury" business models, with investors reassessing how much premium they are willing to pay over the underlying Bitcoin exposure.

Strategy's sale did not arrive in isolation. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded roughly $3.45 billion in withdrawals across 11 straight trading sessions through late May — the largest monthly ETF exodus of 2026, with a single session seeing $484 million in redemptions. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas pushed back on the panic, noting to CoinDesk that $3 billion in outflows from a $100 billion asset base is "totally meaningless" relative to normal ETF flow patterns. He pointed out that cumulative net flows since spot Bitcoin ETFs launched remain near $57 billion, down from a peak of $63 billion — an unusually resilient figure for a volatile asset. ETF share counts have continued to grow even as Bitcoin's price declined, which Balchunas described as a sign of ongoing adoption rather than investor flight. At the same time, U.S. equities kept grinding higher, with the S&P 500 pushing above 7,600 points to record levels as investors piled into artificial intelligence-related stocks, showing capital rotating away from crypto.

Adding pressure to an already fragile bitcoin price, Mt. Gox moved roughly $739 million worth of Bitcoin from its cold wallets on Tuesday — its first on-chain movement in over two months, according to Arkham Intelligence. The defunct Japanese exchange, which collapsed in 2014 after a hack that wiped out roughly 850,000 BTC, has been repaying creditors in phases since 2024. The repayment deadline for remaining creditors now stands at October 31, 2026. Any large wallet movement tied to Mt. Gox triggers anxiety in crypto markets, as creditors who receive repaid Bitcoin have historically sold their holdings. The estate still holds thousands of BTC, and each transfer renews questions about how much supply could enter the market before the final deadline.

A renewed flare-up in the U.S.-Iran conflict added a risk-off tone across markets. Iran suspended nuclear negotiations with the U.S. in response to Israel's escalating military operations in Lebanon, raising the risk of broader regional conflict and potential retaliation by Tehran. Iran's negotiating team reportedly paused communication through mediators, while military exchanges continued to test a fragile regional ceasefire. Iran also demanded a halt to expanding Israeli military operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon as part of the conditions for a final peace agreement. Despite the pause, Donald Trump claimed talks are still progressing "at a rapid pace" and expressed hope that a deal could reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while also brokering a tentative ceasefire understanding between Israel and Hezbollah. A post from the @TrumpTruthOnX commentary account called for Iran to sign "Documents of Surrender," a message that drew attention as traders monitored shipping access through the Strait of Hormuz.

On-chain analytics firm Swissblock noted that Bitcoin's fall below the $72,000 level — the average cost floor for short-term investors — has increased the risk of further decline. The firm observed that the market initially interpreted price consolidation around $70,000 as an accumulation phase for a bull run, but Bitcoin ultimately failed to maintain this support, and the market is now poised to move from a correction and consolidation phase into a continuing downtrend unless BTC reclaims $72,000. Santiment, meanwhile, flagged an increase in transactions above $100,000 as the price dropped, with 10,095 such transactions in a single day — the highest level in six weeks and the highest since April 22. Santiment interpreted this as a strong historical signal of whale accumulation. The firm also noted that stocks have recently outperformed cryptocurrencies, a pattern it characterized as signaling extreme FOMO for equities and FUD for crypto, with capital historically rotating back into digital assets when that gap widens.

Bitcoin remains below its former support at $71,305, with $68,589 as the next near-term level traders are watching, and a further decline could bring the 200-day simple moving average back into focus. Trader Ardi noted that the loss of $72,500 was significant because Bitcoin had broken multiple support levels across different timeframes, putting the next major liquidity area around $68,700 unless BTC quickly reclaimed the lost range. Bitcoin supply in loss has risen to about 40.6%, showing that a large share of circulating value is now held below its acquisition cost — a level that has historically preceded cycle lows, though each new cycle has required a lower loss threshold than earlier ones.