Bitcoin $BTC$67,996.25 is down sharply at the start of trading in the new week, down 5% over the past 24 hours to $64,700.
U.S. stock index futures are also down, led by the Nasdaq 100 falling 0.9%. Precious metals are up sharply, with gold up 2% and silver up 5.6%.
Bitcoin’s move follows a sharp rise from the $67,000 range, where it was trading over the weekend, and comes as on-chain data from Glassnode and CryptoQuant suggests the worst of the panic may have passed, but the broader structure remains under pressure.
Data from Glassnode shows that recent Bitcoin buyers made heavy losses earlier this month. A 7-day smoothed measure of holders’ short-term profits and losses fell to -$1.24 billion per day on February 6, meaning new investors were collectively locking in more than $1 billion in losses each day.
The 7D EMA of net realized profits and losses for recent investors plunged to -$1.24 billion/day on February 6, before moderating to -$0.48 billion/day today.
Even though the intensity has calmed, the wider regime still signals a market under pressure, with participants in the basic training phase… pic.twitter.com/00zibdP1om— glassnode (@glassnode) February 23, 2026
This figure has since improved to approximately –$0.48 billion per day. In other words, panic selling has slowed but not completely stopped. Recent buyers are still selling at a loss overall, a dynamic that typically appears during bottom-building phases rather than strong uptrends.
CryptoQuant’s exchange flow data paints a similar picture of changing market dynamics.
Data from CryptoQuant’s latest weekly report shows that the amount of bitcoins sent to exchanges jumped to around 60,000. $BTC per day in early February drops to $60,000. This figure has since fallen to around 23,000 $BTC on a 7-day smoothed basis, suggesting that the wave of immediate selling has subsided.
But who sells the products has changed. CryptoQuant’s “exchange whale ratio” climbed to 0.64, the highest level since 2015. This means that almost two-thirds of the bitcoins circulating on exchanges come from just the 10 largest deposits each day.
In other words, large holders, often called whales, are responsible for most of the supply on exchanges. The average size of each bitcoin deposit has also reached levels last seen in mid-2022, reinforcing the idea that larger players, not smaller retail traders, are driving today’s exchange activity.
Altcoins face wider distribution. Data from CryptoQuant shows that average daily altcoin exchange deposits have reached around 49,000 so far in 2026, up from around 40,000 in the fourth quarter of 2025. High deposit activity on altcoins has historically coincided with higher volatility and lower risk appetite.
Cash reserves are also dwindling. Net USDT inflows to exchanges declined sharply, from a one-year high of $616 million in November to just $27 million, and briefly turned negative in late January, according to CryptoQuant. Stablecoin flows typically increase during rallies. Their contraction suggests a reduction in marginal purchasing power.
Together, Glassnode’s loss realization data and CryptoQuant’s trading metrics depict a market digesting a capitulation event but not yet rebuilding strong demand.
Going into this week, the key question is whether the $65,000 level remains a short-term pivot, or whether $BTC remains in a prolonged base-building phase.
