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Crypto Bears Have Confirmed Their Control

By
Alexander Kuptsikevich
Published: Feb 23, 2026, 09:35 GMT+00:00

Bitcoin fell to $64.2K at the start of the day on Monday, recovering to around $66K by the start of active trading in Europe.

Crypto Bears Have Confirmed Their Control

BTC Resistance Hardens: Why a Slide to $60K Could Be Next

The crypto market cap has lost about 3.5% over the past 24 hours to $2.25 trillion. At its lowest point at the start of the day, the price fell to $2.22 trillion, which is not far from the lows of February 5–6. It seems that bears have gathered enough strength to try to complete the consolidation of the last couple of weeks during the hours of lowest liquidity. Among the top coins, Solana and Bitcoin Cash are taking the biggest hit, losing over 7%, while Tron is doing better than most, losing only 0.3%.

The sentiment index fell to 5, repeating the lows of February 12 and dropping this low for only the third time in history. According to the indicator, such a decline is a good point for long-term purchases. However, the last time there was a relatively long dip into single digits was in June 2022, and steady growth only began at the start of 2023. So, the lows of the sentiment index do not necessarily coincide with the lows of the crypto market prices.

Bitcoin fell to $64.2K at the start of the day on Monday, recovering to around $66K by the start of active trading in Europe. Despite an attempt at recovery in the last few hours, the bears on the chart showed who is in control, leaving the downward resistance in place and pushing BTC below the support level. Without a dramatic change in sentiment, the market may fall to $60K as early as this week.

Crypto News

The total capitalisation of cryptocurrencies has fallen by $730 billion in 100 days. CryptoQuant calls this an “unprecedented rate of capital outflow,” which is accelerating the contraction of the crypto market.

Retail traders are actively buying BTC at every dip, while institutional investors have sold a “huge amount” of the asset over the past five weeks, Santiment notes.

The situation is exacerbated by a negative trend in Bitcoin’s on-chain metrics — on-chain transaction volumes, the number of new addresses, and network growth rates are steadily declining.

In the coming weeks, BTC could break through the $60,000 mark and fall to support levels around $50,000–55,000. By the end of the year, Bitcoin could fall even lower, warns crypto industry veteran and Ballet CEO Bobby Lee.

Mining company Bitdeer sold its entire stock of bitcoins to support its operations — about 943 BTC. Miners’ revenues have been steadily declining since October 2025.

BNP Paribas has chosen Ethereum for a pilot project to explore the possibilities of tokenising money market funds.

by FxPro’s Senior Market Analyst Alex Kuptsikevich

About the Author

Alexander is engaged in the analysis of the currency market, the world economy, gold and oil for more than 10 years. He gives commentaries to leading socio-political and economic magazines, gives interviews for radio and television, and publishes his own researches.

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