Bitcoin fell 9% over three days, sliding to its lowest level so far in 2026, before edging back to around $59,500.

Cointelegraph reported on June 25, local time, that Bitcoin triggered more than $1 billion in liquidations across leveraged long positions as it retested $58,000.

Bitcoin's weakness coincided with outflows from spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, pressure from options expiry and widening unrealised losses at Strategy. U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs posted net outflows of $469 million on June 24. A $13 billion Bitcoin options expiry scheduled for June 27 also has a structure that favours put options.

In the options market, 78% of call options are set at $72,000 or above, making it likely that many neutral or bullish strategies will expire worthless at current price levels. On Deribit, open interest in put options is $3.4 billion higher than in call options.

Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, has bought $64.1 billion worth of Bitcoin since 2020 and is now carrying large unrealised losses. At the same time, appetite has weakened for assets that do not generate returns. The market is pricing in an 80% chance of a U.S. rate hike by December, up from 68% a month ago. The 5-year U.S. Treasury yield is 4.15 percent.

U.S. tech stocks, meanwhile, extended gains. Micron Technology rose 16% on strong quarterly results, and SanDisk gained 18%. Applied Materials also jumped 10% on the back of new semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

The macro environment also worked in favour of equities. The U.S. personal consumption expenditures price index rose 4.1% in May from a year earlier. But as Brent crude fell to $75 from $95 a month earlier, investors saw inflation as having peaked. The drop in energy costs was seen as freeing up funds that flowed into stocks.

Recent U.S. government policies also increased preference for tech stocks. The U.S. government secured a 9.9% stake in Intel and proposed $2 billion in support for quantum computing companies. It also opened federal land for data centre projects and presented a framework for disclosing frontier models.

Bitcoin is being influenced more by large net ETF outflows, a put-leaning options expiry and widening unrealised losses at Strategy than by equity market gains. An analysis says a rebound will require its own drivers separate from supportive stock markets.