The market that dragged bitcoin off $65,000 this week didn't sell it hard. It just stopped showing up.
Bitcoin closed the week near $62,600 after failing to reclaim $65,000, and Yusuf Fakhro, a partner at Bahrain-based ARP Digital, reads that through the market's plumbing rather than the Fed headline that nudged it lower. The ETF bid that powered July's recovery has stalled, flipping to net outflows of nearly 4,000 BTC on the week after a run of steady inflows.
The rest of the tape has gone quiet to the point of dormancy. July logged the lowest average daily spot volume since November 2023. CME open interest sits at 2023 levels. Perpetual-futures positioning has stalled near 300,000 BTC.
It's a market that has stopped participating, Fakhro said, and even Strategy has paused its bitcoin buying for a fifth straight week, so the biggest structural buyer is sitting on its hands too.
The July 29 Fed meeting held rates and offered no easing signal, stripping out the catalyst bulls had leaned on.
The week's real jolt came from custody. A Coldcard firmware flaw dormant since 2021 was exploited to drain roughly 1,367 BTC, about $89 million, from thousands of self-custodied wallets, and some holders have since moved coins back onto exchanges and into regulated products.
Bitcoin traded near $62,700 on Monday, down 3.5% on the week. Watch the next inflow print: if the ETF bid stays flat while price holds, Fakhro's exhaustion read is right, and if fresh outflows can't push it under $60,000, the sellers really are done.
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