Bitcoin’s Dance of Doom: Will It Waltz or Stumble?

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What to know:

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)

Ah, the fickle dance of Bitcoin, a waltz of hope and despair, where fortunes rise and fall with the grace of a drunken sailor. Once more, the charts whisper of doom, their lines twisting like the fate of a hapless protagonist in a Chekhovian tragedy. The pattern, my dear reader, has returned-that ominous harbinger of bear markets past, now looming like a specter over the crypto faithful.

In 2018, CoinDesk, that oracle of digital currency, warned of a bearish flip in long-term averages. Lo and behold, within a week, Bitcoin tumbled from $6,000 to under $4,500, a fall as swift and merciless as a Chekhovian character’s realization of life’s futility. And again, in 2022, the pattern struck, sending prices from $32,000 to $17,500, a descent as inevitable as the third act of a Russian drama.

Now, the pattern returns, its presence as unwelcome as an uninvited guest at a dinner party. While history, that fickle mistress, offers no guarantees, it does suggest caution. Savvy traders, ever the pessimists, prepare for a deeper crash below $60,000. Bitcoin, ever the dramatic hero, recently traded near $66,100, down 3% in 24 hours-a fall as modest as a Chekhovian character’s ambitions.

Yet, amidst the gloom, there is a glimmer of hope. U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs have pulled in over $1 billion in three days, a testament to the resilience of the crypto faithful. Iliya Kalchev, an analyst at Nexo Dispatch, notes that the breadth of demand signals absorption rather than speculation. “On-chain data reinforces the shift,” he writes, with wallets holding more than 10,000 Bitcoin accumulating through the recent pullback. Ah, the long-term holders, those stoic figures in our drama, stepping in as supply thins.

But let us not forget the traditional markets, where oil prices remain supported by U.S.-Iran uncertainty-a geopolitical drama as complex as a Chekhov play. Stay alert, dear reader, for the world of finance is a stage, and we are all but players.

What to Watch

For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead”.

  • Crypto
    • Nothing scheduled. A moment of quiet before the storm, perhaps?
  • Macro
    • Feb. 27, 8:30 a.m.: U.S. PPI MoM for January est. 0.3% (Prev. 0.5%); Core PPI MoM est. 0.3% (Prev. 0.7%)
    • Feb. 27, 8:30 a.m.: U.S. PPI YoY for January est. 2.9% (Prev. 3%)
    • Feb. 27, 8:30 a.m.: Canada GDP growth rate annualized for Q4 (Prev. 2.6%); QoQ (Prev. 0.6%)
  • Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
    • Nothing scheduled. Another quiet moment, or a lull before the chaos?

Token Events

For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead”.

Conferences

For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead”.

  • Day 3 of 4: GFTN Forum Japan (Tokyo)
  • Feb. 27: Wave of Innovation (Sydney, Australia)

Market Movements

  • BTC is unchanged from 4 p.m. ET Thursday at $67,423.09 (24hrs: -0.95%)
  • ETH is down 0.89% at $2,012.51 (24hrs: -2%)
  • CoinDesk 20 is unchanged at 1,968.26 (24hrs: -2.49%)
  • Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is up 4 bps at 2.89%
  • BTC funding rate is at -0.006% (-6.5799% annualized) on Binance

  • DXY is unchanged at 97.74
  • Gold futures are unchanged at $5,191.50
  • Silver futures are up 2.82% at $90.05
  • Nikkei 225 closed up 0.16% at 58,850.27
  • Hang Seng closed up 0.95% at 26,630.54
  • FTSE is up 0.39% at 10,888.78
  • Euro Stoxx 50 is unchanged at 6,161.33
  • DJIA closed on Thursday up 0.03% at 49,499.20
  • S&P 500 closed down 0.54% at 6,908.86
  • Nasdaq Composite closed down 1.18% at 22,878.38
  • S&P/TSX Composite closed up 1.1% at 34,501.96
  • S&P 40 Latin America closed down 1.4% at 3,772.90
  • U.S. 10-Year Treasury rate is down 3 bps at 3.987%
  • E-mini S&P 500 futures are down 0.28% at 6,900.75
  • E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are down 0.19% at 25,033.75
  • E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are down 0.48% at 49,294.00

Bitcoin Stats

  • BTC Dominance: 58.49% (-0.11%)
  • Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.02973 (-1.06%)
  • Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,055 EH/s
  • Hashprice (spot): $29.31
  • Total fees: 3.43 BTC / $232,808
  • CME Futures Open Interest: 107,780 BTC
  • BTC priced in gold: 12.8 oz.
  • BTC vs gold market cap: 4.46%

Technical Analysis

  • The chart, a canvas of despair, shows BTC’s price swings on a three-day time frame in candlestick format from 2024-2025 and 2018-2022. Each candle, a fleeting moment of hope or despair, bundles the price action seen over three days, or 72 hours.
  • On this chart, moving averages of 50- and 200-candles have crossed bearish, a sign as ominous as a Chekhovian character’s premonition of doom.
  • Similar patterns led to deeper slides in 2014, 2018, and 2022, each a chapter in the tragic tale of Bitcoin’s volatility.

Crypto Equities

  • Coinbase Global (COIN): closed on Thursday at $181.06 (-1.57%), unchanged in pre-market
  • Circle Internet (CRCL): closed at $87.21 (+4.90%), unchanged in pre-market
  • Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $21.94 (-3.90%)
  • Bullish (BLSH): closed at $32.73 (-0.49%), unchanged in pre-market
  • MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $8.45 (-1.40%), +15.98% at $9.80
  • Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $17.09 (+0.06%), +0.12% at $17.11
  • Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $17.98 (-0.55%), -1.50% at $17.71
  • CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $10.44 (-0.10%), -0.77% at $10.36
  • CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $42.17 (-0.40%)
  • Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $10.45 (-1.69%)

Crypto Treasury Companies

  • Strategy (MSTR): closed at $133.40 (-1.66%), +0.62% at $134.23
  • Strive (ASST): closed at $8.19 (-4.10%), +0.24% at $8.21
  • SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $7.21 (-3.09%), +0.55% at $7.25
  • Upexi (UPXI): closed at $0.76 (-7.87%), +0.22% at $0.76
  • Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.14 (-3.39%)

ETF Flows

Spot BTC ETFs

  • Daily net flows: $254.4 million
  • Cumulative net flows: $54.81 billion
  • Total BTC holdings ~1.27 million

Spot ETH ETFs

  • Daily net flows: $6.6 million
  • Cumulative net flows: $11.68 billion
  • Total ETH holdings ~5.72 million

Read More

2026-02-27 15:31