Bitcoin Selloff Deepens As Bitwise CIO Warns Of ‘Wilderness’ Ahead, Whales Buy The Dip – But $57K Remains In Sight
Matt Hougan, Bitwise Chief Investment Officer, said late on Saturday that as Bitcoin (BTC) selling deepened, the crypto market could drift for a while.Bitcoin fell below $66,000 on Saturday afternoon, the first time it has fallen below that level since August. In a post on X, Hougan stated that the market feels a lot like mid-2018. At the time the industry was "exhausted" and many investors left the market.He said that the industry "could wander through the wilderness" for a while before it settles. Investors are still sorting through the long-term effects of the elections, Binance and tighter monetary policy, he said.But Hougan sees a "big buying opportunity" ahead, but the timing is hard to call, he said. He added that decentralized finance, or DeFi, pulled the market out of its 2018 slump. He thinks this time a new breakthrough will do the same. But, "they are impossible to predict", he said.Whales Buy, Others Sell FasterCryptoQuant, an on-chain analytics firm, painted a similar picture on Saturday. The firm said on X that big holders are buying the dip but not keeping up with sellers. Bitcoin has dropped roughly 24% from its recent high, the firm said.Wallets holding between 1,000 and 10,000 BTC added about 43,700 BTC, CryptoQuant said. Wallets with more than 10,000 BTC added another 3,300 BTC. The mid-sized holders sold more. Wallets holding 100 to 1,000 BTC removed around 50,500 BTC. Of those selling 10-100 BTC, about 14,400 were sold.The real problem is demand, according to the firm. Its 30-day apparent demand reading slipped to -284,000 BTC. The metric is a barometer of net buying across the market. CryptoQuant said it is now at its weakest since April 2025.U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have also turned sellers. Their 30-day flows reversed from about 49,700 BTC of buying to about 29,600 BTC of selling, the firm said. It added that have also been small.Bitcoin Short-Term Holders Face Mounting LossesRecent buyers are now underwater. CryptoQuant said short-term traders paid an average of about $80,300 per coin. By Sept. 21 they had paper gains of roughly 35%. Now they have dropped some 15%.More and more holders are selling at a loss. The firm saw net realized losses, or coins sold at a loss, on 14 of 16 days since Oct. 29. The losses totaled some 84,000 BTC in all. Friday was the worst day of the drawdown with approximately 18,500 BTC sold at a loss.Drop To $57K PossibleCryptoQuant noted that some of the old support levels have now become resistance levels. One is near $73,000, near Bitcoin's 200-day moving average. On the downside the firm flagged support at $63,000, then $59,800 and the 2026 low of $57,700.Strategist Sees Bottom FormingNot everyone is gloomy. James E. Thorne of Wellington-Altus said on X that a bullish chart pattern is still intact. He blamed the selloff on leverage rather than weak fundamentals. Thorne said Bitcoin needs to climb back above $73,000 and then hold above $87,000. If it does, he sees about $117,000 by mid-2027.He said his view is wrong if Bitcoin falls below $57,000. was trading at $64,300, down over 5% in the last 24 hours. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around BTC remained in the ‘extremely bearish’ zone, as chatter around it remained at ‘high’ levels over the past day.