Bitcoin Slumps Under $64K Amid Historic ‘Negative’ Sentiment

Lame price action has apparently caused crowd sentiment to be in negative territory for four straight weeks, a sign that may spell relief for bulls in the near term.

Bitcoin (BTC) price took a downturn Friday, dropping more than 3% in the past 24 hours to fall to around a five-week low of $63,700. BTC price now trades lower by 9% over the past month.

However, contrarian bulls might take comfort in new data suggesting that crowd sentiment for BTC is now in its fourth week of “extreme negative” reading.

“The crowd is mainly fearful or disinterested toward Bitcoin,” analysis firm Santiment noted in an X post Friday. “This extended level of FUD is rare, as traders continue to capitulate.”

“BTC trader fatigue, combined with whale accumulation, generally leads to bounces that reward the patient,” the firm added.

Santiment’s Weighted Sentiment Index measures bitcoin mentions on X and compares the ratio of positive to negative comments and trading volumes to gauge what the crowd is generally feeling about bitcoin. The index, which shows a -0.73 reading as of Friday, has been negative since May 23.

Meanwhile, data from Google Trends shows a decline in retail search interest. The tool allows users to compare the relative volume of searches. A line trending downward means that a search term's popularity relative to other popular terms is decreasing.

Worldwide searches for “bitcoin” have steadily fallen since March 2024, the data shows.

Bitcoin price has suffered in the past few weeks amid $1 billion in sales from large holders, dollar strength and a strong U.S. technology index market that may be drawing investor money.

Outflow activity from U.S.-listed spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has also reached its worst since late April, with $900 million leaving the products so far this week. These outflows are approaching the $1.2 billion in total net outflows in trading sessions from April 24 to May 2.

Some traders expect bitcoin to reach the $60,000 level in the near-term due to the lack of growth catalysts, although the long-term outlook remains bullish, as previously reported by CoinDesk.