Bitcoin Treads Water Below $60,000 With Bears Still Calling the Shots

Quick overview

Not much changed on Monday, and that might be the most honest way to describe it. Bitcoin added 0.6% to reach $59,800, barely moving the needle after what has been a rough few weeks. Solana had a stronger day, up 2%, clawing back some ground after touching its lowest price since late 2023 earlier this month. Neither move felt like a turning point, and the data underneath the price action made it hard to argue otherwise.

Derivatives data is where the picture gets difficult. More than $200 million in futures positions were liquidated in the past 24 hours, with long positions making up the bulk of that. Bitcoin open interest pulled back to ranges seen earlier this month after a brief uptick on Friday, which suggests traders are not interested in rebuilding exposure right now. Ethereum open interest stayed anchored near 14.2 million ETH without much movement either way.

Solana’s positioning is worth flagging separately. Open interest in SOL sits near 72.7 million tokens, not far off the record high set on June 24. That kind of elevated positioning heading into a market that has been selling off tends to create conditions for more volatility, not less.

AVAX was up more than 5% last week and moved independently of Bitcoin while doing it. The problem is that nobody seemed to follow it in with leveraged bets. Open interest in AVAX kept dropping through that same stretch and is now at its lowest point since April 1, which tends to be the kind of thing that follows a move rather than leads one.

In the options market, Bitcoin’s $60,000 put has grown to nearly $1 billion in notional open interest, almost level with the $80,000 call that has sat at the top of the range for months. Losing $60,000 on a closing basis would bring $50,000 into view, where another $712 million in open interest is clustered.

The altcoin season indicator is sitting at 49 out of 100, roughly unchanged through most of June. Nobody is rotating into speculative assets while Bitcoin has not found direction.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR See More

Sophia Cruz

Financial Writer - Asian & European Desks

Sophia is an experienced writer, reporter and newsdesk member, mostly on the financial sectors. For the past 5 years Sophia has covered a wide variety of topics such as the financial markets, economics, technology, fin-tech and trading. Sophia has been a part of the FX Leaders team since 2017 and works on producing valuable content and information for traders of all levels of experience.

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