Bitcoin fell sharply at the start of the new week’s trading, falling 5% in the last 24 hours to $64,700.
US stock index futures were also down, led by a 0.9% drop in the Nasdaq 100. Precious metals rose sharply, with gold ahead 2% and silver 5.6%.
Bitcoin’s move follows a sharp rise from the $67,000 range, where it traded over the weekend, and comes as on-chain data from Glassnode and CryptoQuanta suggest the worst of the panic may be over, but the broader structure remains under pressure.
Data from Glassnode shows that recent bitcoin buyers were taking big losses earlier this month. A smoothed 7-day measure of short-term gains and losses for stockholders fell to -$1.24 billion for the day on February 6th, meaning that recent investors collectively saw more than $1 billion in losses each day.
That figure has since improved to about -$0.48 billion per day. In other words, panic selling has slowed down, but not completely stopped. Recent buyers continue to sell at a loss in general, a dynamic that typically occurs during bottom-building phases rather than strong uptrends.
Exchange flow data from CryptoQuant paints a similar picture of changing market dynamics.
Data from CryptoQuanta’s latest weekly report shows that the amount of bitcoin sent to exchanges has increased to around 60,000 BTC per day during the early February decline towards $60,000. That figure has since fallen to approximately 23,000 BTC on a 7-day smoothed basis, suggesting that the wave of immediate selling has cooled.
But who is selling has changed, reports SEEbiz. CryptoQuant’s “Exchange Whale Ratio” rose to 0.64, the highest level since 2015. This means that almost two-thirds of the bitcoins flowing into exchanges every day come from just the top 10 deposits.
In other words, the big holders, often called whales, make up most of the supply in the stock markets. The average size of each bitcoin deposit has also risen to levels last seen in mid-2022, reinforcing the idea that larger players, not small retailers, are driving the exchange’s current activity.
Altcoins face wider distribution. Data from CryptoQuanta shows that average daily deposits on altcoin exchanges have risen to about 49,000 so far in 2026, up from roughly 40,000 in the fourth quarter of 2025. Increased deposit activity in altcoins has historically coincided with higher volatility and lower risk appetite.
Liquidity buffers are also shrinking. The net inflow of USDT into exchanges plummeted from a one-year high of $616 million in November to just $27 million, briefly turning negative in late January, according to CryptoQuant. Stablecoin inflows usually increase during growth. Their decrease suggests reduced marginal purchasing power.
