Bitcoin (BTC) Price Weakness Builds on 5% Downside as $66,000 Support Breaks

BTC price action produced 1.5% losses on the day as BTC price weakness builds on 5% downside. These followed a steeper rejection from $70,000

Bitcoin (BTC) risked losing $66,000 after the July 30 Wall Street open as a long liquidation event appeared on the horizon.

BTC price weakness builds on 5% downside

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC price action producing 1.5% losses on the day.

These followed a steeper rejection from $70,000, the latest in a series of failed attempts to flip the nearby area into support in recent months.

Commenting on the latest market moves, popular trader Skew noted that the downtick had cleared around 12,000 BTC ($800 million) of open interest.

According to Skew, the selling pressure was triggered, in part, by news of changes at Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) — a U.S. Bitcoin institutional investment vehicle.

In a July 29 press release, operator Grayscale announced the creation of a new Bitcoin Mini Trust and the transfer of 10% of GBTC Bitcoin holdings into the new trust.

Meanwhile, GBTC saw outflows of nearly $55 million, part of a broader trend among U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), led by $205 million in outflows from the sector’s largest product, the BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT).

With that, attention among market participants shifted to traders with long positions.

According to trading suite DecenTrader, long BTC liquidations would begin if the price dropped to $63,600, marking a 3.5% decrease from current levels.

“Consolidation in the $53-72k range has built up a short liquidations between $74 and $80k,” part of a dedicated X thread noted.

Popular trader Jelle highlighted $72,000 as a key level to squeeze out shorts.

“After taking out the downside liquidity — Bitcoin is pushing closer and closer to those short liquidations around $72,000,” he told X followers, sharing data from monitoring resource CoinGlass.

Bitcoin speculators hold off on capitulation

On the other hand, a analysis of investor behavior by onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant suggested that there was little cause for concern when it came to speculators losing their nerve.

In one of its Quicktake blog posts, contributor Amr Taha compared changes in the realized cap of short-term and long-term holders.

The former, with an aggregate cost basis around $65,000, continues to shy away from impulse selling into weak price action.

“An increase in the realized cap for STH suggests that recently acquired BTC is being retained instead of sold, signaling accumulation among short-term holders,” he wrote.