As shown on the daily chart, bitcoin initially appeared to recover from its Monday afternoon dip to $82,555—its lowest price in the previous week—when it jumped above $84,000. However, the cryptocurrency failed to hold that level, falling back below the threshold nearly three hours later. Price action then consolidated between $83,600 and $83,100 for several hours before a sharp sell-off drove it down to $82,807.
After hitting this low, bitcoin rebounded to reclaim $83,500 by 2 a.m. ET before peaking at $84,545 nearly seven hours later. However, much like its earlier movement, the cryptocurrency quickly gave back those gains, trading near $83,150 at 12:25 p.m.
Despite the volatility, liquidations on bitcoin were capped near $78 million on Tuesday, per data from Coinglass, with wiped-out short positions exceeding $44 million. The situation across the broader crypto market was slightly different, however, as rallying altcoin prices erased $195 million in long bets compared to roughly $125 million in short bets.
While bitcoin’s recent rally was supercharged by U.S. Treasury liquidity maneuvers, massive spot ETF inflows, and retail FOMO, resurfacing geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East have brought that upward momentum to a halt. The sudden flight to traditional safe-haven assets and rising energy prices have created a macroeconomic headwind, effectively capping the cryptocurrency’s near-term upside.
Macro Headwinds Counter Bullish Inflows
According to Utkarsh Ahuja, founder and managing partner at Moon Pursuit Capital, bitcoin’s slide below $83,000—coupled with higher Treasury yields, a stronger dollar, surging oil prices, and geopolitical uncertainty—is more than just a crypto story.
“I remain constructive on digital assets over the medium- and long-term, but crypto remains highly sensitive to liquidity and positioning, and tighter financial conditions feed through quickly. Leverage then amplifies those moves, which can turn a broader macro repricing into a much sharper crypto sell-off,” Ahuja said.
He added that if yields stay high and the dollar keeps strengthening, then there is room for further pressure. However, if those conditions reverse after leverage has been flushed out, then crypto can reprice quickly, Ahuja said.
Remarking on bitcoin’s failure to build on the rally that saw it breach the $87,000 mark last Monday, Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com, specifically pointed to surging oil prices as the likely cause.
“The rise in crude prices is capping non-yielding assets, so bitcoin’s rally has taken a bit of a pause,” Rodda told Bitcoin.com News. “As long as that upside risk to energy persists, bitcoin is likely to struggle to recapture upside momentum. However, bitcoin’s technicals look quite constructive. Price action seems to be signaling that the market is consolidating within a short-term uptrend.”
