Bitcoin Falls as Short Sellers Pile In, Even as Spot Buyers Step Up

Core Insights - Bitcoin experienced a significant pullback primarily due to short selling, with a drop of 1.5% from $115,000, leading to a total open interest increase of 2.3% and an additional $591 million in notional value [1] - The cumulative volume delta of perpetual futures on offshore exchanges decreased, indicating that short sellers were driving the decline, with a subsequent 3.5% drop to $107,500 and a 4% increase in open interest adding $1.03 billion in exposure [2] - Despite the overall bearish sentiment, spot demand on U.S.-based exchanges like Coinbase remained mostly positive, suggesting ongoing buy-the-dip activity from spot investors [3] Market Dynamics - A liquidation event of $724 million occurred within 24 hours, with long positions accounting for $536 million, indicating that bulls had leveraged up in anticipation of a recovery [4] - The market is facing macroeconomic uncertainty and rising geopolitical tensions, contributing to the volatility and the need for a period of rebalancing [4][5] - Analysts express a bearish outlook, with expectations of continued volatility as macro uncertainties persist, despite some dip-buying efforts from spot investors [5]