Tag Archives: inflation

Bitcoin at US$64,660: The hidden on-chain signal that suggests we’re still in a bear market

Bitcoin at US$64,660: The hidden on-chain signal that suggests we’re still in a bear market

Bitcoin recently outperformed both United States and European equities following the United States Consumer Price Index inflation report on Tuesday. This decisive move marks a strong recovery after weeks of trading sideways near recent lows. This price action is a structural shift rather than a random fluctuation.

The current market dynamics suggest that selling pressure is exhausting. Buyers are increasingly positioning themselves and waiting for positive macroeconomic catalysts to drive the next leg higher. This exhaustion of sellers often precedes significant trend reversals, especially when converging macroeconomic and onchain data support this trajectory. Independent analysis reveals patterns that mainstream narratives frequently suppress, and the current data strongly supports a bullish structural foundation for the future of decentralised finance.

The primary catalyst for this renewed momentum is undeniably macroeconomic relief. The latest Consumer Price Index report showed an unexpected 0.4 per cent monthly drop in inflation. This represents the largest cooling in inflation since April 2020. With annual inflation slowing down, macro investors have renewed confidence that the Federal Reserve may hold interest rates steady or begin cutting them in the near future. This expectation drives capital back into risk assets like cryptocurrencies.

I have long emphasised the correlation between traditional financial markets and digital assets. When macroeconomic conditions ease, liquidity inevitably seeks higher yields, and Bitcoin stands as the premier beneficiary of this global capital rotation. The market correctly prices in this shifting monetary policy landscape before official rate decisions occur, demonstrating the efficiency of decentralised markets compared to legacy systems.

Onchain metrics further validate this constructive outlook. Bitcoin continues to trade above the average on-chain cost basis of all investors. It remains below the short-term holder cost basis near US$69,000. This specific positioning provides deep insight into market psychology.

Long-term holders have largely stopped realising profits during this period. Furthermore, recent outflows have been increasingly sold at a loss. These behaviours reflect classic signs of a late-stage bear market where weak hands have already capitulated. The remaining supply sits in the wallets of conviction buyers who understand the long-term value proposition of decentralised financial infrastructure. We can clearly observe that buyers absorbed much of the selling pressure from the decline in June.

The Glassnode Accumulation Trend Score showed broad buying activity across both small and large wallet cohorts as Bitcoin traded near its recent lows. This broad accumulation indicates retail participants and sophisticated whales recognise the value at these price levels. The accumulation has since moderated as prices stabilised, signalling a healthy natural equilibrium rather than frantic speculation.

Institutional flows also reflect clear signs of improvement, even amidst broader market caution. United States spot Bitcoin ETF redemptions slowed considerably from the heavy outflows we witnessed in June. This deceleration suggests institutional selling pressure is finally stabilising. Bitcoin funds netted US$181 million in inflows on Tuesday.

This positive movement partially offset the US$424 million in outflows recorded the day before. While this reflects a minor recovery, the unwinding lacks support from strong, aggressive buying. This nuanced institutional behaviour aligns perfectly with my independent analysis of traditional finance entering the crypto space. Until inflows return and hold consistently, this remains a market where institutions have stopped fleeing but have not started buying aggressively.

Traditional financial players exercise extreme caution. They require confirmed macroeconomic shifts and sustained price stability before committing fresh capital. This cautious approach is rational, and it highlights the friction between legacy regulatory frameworks and decentralised systems. Traditional financial tests like the Howey test remain unsuitable for evaluating these decentralised crypto systems, creating temporary hesitation among institutional allocators.

The derivatives market provides additional confirmation of this shifting sentiment. Traders have steadily shifted away from bearish positioning over recent weeks. The options put-to-call ratio has fallen to its lowest level of the year. This decline indicates a substantially reduced demand for downside protection.

Smart money is adjusting its risk models, recognising that the probability of a severe downward continuation has diminished. Perpetual futures funding rates have remained slightly positive during this recovery phase. This specific metric suggests that long positioning has not become crowded.

In my experience analysing market liquidity and derivatives volume, crowded long positioning often precedes sharp, corrective liquidations. Funding rates remaining slightly positive indicate a sustainable and organic recovery. Technically, Bitcoin is currently hovering around US$64,660. This price action reflects a strong multi-day push that reclaimed the crucial US$65,000 psychological milestone.

The recent upward momentum accelerated significantly when Bitcoin broke back over the technical resistance levels between US$58,000 and US$62,000. This breakout triggered a massive wave of short covering. Traders betting on further price drops bought back their positions to limit losses. This forced buying acted as rocket fuel, pushing the price decisively past the resistance zone.

Three powerful, converging factors drive this recent upward momentum.

  • First, easing United States inflation data has provided essential macroeconomic relief.
  • Second, massive institutional ETF inflows, including over US$180 million in net inflows in a single day, led heavily by funds like BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust, demonstrate continuous whale accumulation that absorbs market supply and applies strong upward price pressure.
  • Third, short covering and forced liquidation cleared out bearish leverage, fuelling the breakout. These elements form a robust foundation for the next major expansion phase of digital assets.

I am looking forward to more changes.

 

Source: https://e27.co/bitcoin-at-us64660-the-hidden-on-chain-signal-that-suggests-were-still-in-a-bear-market-20260716/

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

www.anndy.com
j j j

Anndy Lian flags inflation as hidden in money printing

Anndy Lian flags inflation as hidden in money printing

Anndy Lian has raised concerns about inflation, describing it as the ‘hidden terms and conditions’ often overlooked when new money is printed. This metaphorical reference suggests that the effects of increasing the money supply can lead to inflationary pressures that may not be immediately apparent to the public.

 

 

Lian’s warning about inflation as an often-overlooked consequence of monetary expansion reflects broader uncertainties confronting digital asset markets. These complexities are reminiscent of his previous examination of the challenges impacting crypto amid market recalibration, including external threats and economic instability. Additionally, his scrutiny of VC coins’ follower surges highlights further vulnerabilities within rapidly evolving financial ecosystems.

 

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

www.anndy.com
j j j

The great crypto disconnect: US inflation drops, but BTC keeps falling

The great crypto disconnect: US inflation drops, but BTC keeps falling

While Asian equities celebrated renewed optimism following softer-than-expected US inflation data, the cryptocurrency market entered another phase of retreat, weighed down by a confluence of structural and behavioural forces that signal a deeper realignment in investor sentiment. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.6 per cent, buoyed by semiconductor leader TSMC and SoftBank Group, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 1.1 per cent ahead of a highly anticipated Bank of Japan policy decision.

This regional strength stemmed directly from the US Consumer Price Index’s unexpected drop to 2.7 per cent in November, well beneath the forecasted 3.1 per cent and marking the weakest annual gain since early 2021. Markets interpreted this data as a green light for Federal Reserve rate cuts in 2026, injecting fresh momentum into risk assets across Asia.

At the same time, crypto experienced a further 0.79 per cent decline over the past 24 hours, extending its seven-day slide to 7.57 per cent. This divergence underscores a critical transformation underway. Bitcoin and other digital assets are no longer moving in lockstep with macro liquidity signals or tech-sector sentiment. Instead, they face internal pressures so profound that even historically supportive macro backdrops fail to provide a floor.

Gold surged to an all-time high of US$4330 per ounce, while silver breached US$66 per ounce, levels never before seen in financial history. This shift toward metals reflects a pronounced change in risk perception among institutional and retail investors alike. Unlike in previous cycles, when crypto often benefited from expectations of monetary easing or inflation fears, today’s capital flows into tangible, state-endorsed stores of value rather than decentralised alternatives.

Bitcoin, despite its decade-long narrative as digital gold, has failed to capture this demand. Year-to-date, it is down approximately 8 per cent, and its price correlation with the Nasdaq-100 has weakened to a near-zero 24-hour correlation coefficient of negative 0.03. This decoupling reveals a troubling reality. Crypto’s identity as a risk-on asset is being challenged not only by external macroeconomic conditions but also by its own inability to serve as a reliable hedge during periods of economic uncertainty. Investors now seem to view gold and silver, rather than bitcoin, as the primary beneficiaries of monetary instability, geopolitical tensions, and inflation volatility.

Compounding this macro-level rejection is a relentless wave of selling from bitcoin’s most steadfast cohort, long-term holders. According to available data, nearly US$300 billion worth of bitcoin that had remained dormant for over one year re-entered active circulation in 2025 alone. This represents the largest distribution by long-term holders since 2020 and includes approximately 1.6 million coins that had been untouched for at least two years. The significance of this behaviour cannot be overstated. These are not speculative traders reacting to short-term volatility. They are early adopters, whales, and conviction-driven investors who have weathered multiple market cycles. Their decision to sell suggests a fundamental reassessment of bitcoin’s near-term trajectory.

This exodus has coincided precisely with bitcoin’s 30 per cent decline from its October peak of US$126000, indicating that the selling pressure is not merely a reaction to price drops but a driving force behind them. The phenomenon resembles a slow bleed, a steady offloading into thin order books that lacks the drama of a crash but inflicts sustained downward pressure. With the 24-hour Relative Strength Index sitting at 36.36, just above the oversold threshold of 30, the market teeters on the edge of potential capitulation. If that support breaks, a deeper correction could follow, particularly if long-term holders accelerate their distributions.

Further amplifying the downside has been a wave of forced liquidations in the derivatives market. Over the past 24 hours, US$176 million in bitcoin positions were liquidated, with long positions accounting for 66 per cent of those losses, a clear sign of leveraged bullish bets being unwound. This liquidation cascade acted as a multiplier on the initial selling pressure, pushing prices lower in a feedback loop that discouraged new buyers.

There is a silver lining in this deleveraging. Open interest in bitcoin perpetual futures has declined by four per cent, indicating that traders are reducing their leverage exposure. This deleveraging, while painful in the short term, lowers the systemic risk of a disorderly collapse. A less leveraged market is more resilient to flash crashes and more likely to stabilise once sentiment shifts. The immediate impact remains bearish, as each wave of liquidations reinforces the perception of weakness and deters momentum-driven capital from entering.

What makes this moment particularly significant is the behaviour of capital within the crypto ecosystem itself. Bitcoin dominance now stands at 59.36 per cent, a three-month high, which might superficially suggest strength. In reality, it reflects a broader flight from the asset class altogether, not a rotation into bitcoin from altcoins, but a wholesale exit from crypto in favour of traditional safe havens. Investors are not reallocating within digital assets. They are withdrawing from them. This trend raises an urgent question for the coming months.

Can institutional inflows through spot ETFs offset the sustained outflow from long-term holders? Some analysts argue that institutional participation, fuelled by ETF approvals and allocations from major financial firms, is already reducing bitcoin’s volatility, citing a 68 per cent price swing in 2025 compared to Nvidia’s 120 per cent as evidence of maturation. That theoretical stability means little when real-time price action tells a story of persistent selling and broken technical levels.

In conclusion, the US$2.88 trillion market capitalisation level, derived from key Fibonacci retracement levels, emerges as a critical support zone. A decisive close below this threshold could trigger an additional five to seven per cent drop as algorithmic trading models and risk-managed portfolios recalibrate their exposure. Conversely, a firm hold above this level, combined with signs of stabilisation in long-term holder behaviour and renewed ETF inflows, could set the stage for a relief rally. For now, the path of least resistance remains downward.

The confluence of safe-haven rotations, veteran investor profit-taking, and derivatives deleveraging has created a perfect storm that even favourable macro news from the US CPI cannot immediately dispel. Bitcoin may be maturing with respect to volatility metrics, but maturity also entails facing the consequences of market-structure shifts without the artificial buoyancy of speculative fervour.

The next few weeks, especially in the wake of the Bank of Japan’s policy decision and continued Fed commentary, will determine whether this correction marks a temporary pause in a structural bull market or the beginning of a more prolonged reassessment of crypto’s role in a post-rate-hike, risk-conscious world.

 

Source: https://e27.co/the-great-crypto-disconnect-us-inflation-drops-but-btc-keeps-falling-20251219/

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

www.anndy.com
j j j