What a week.. bitcoin started around 67 thousand looking like it might hold that range, then just fell apart on Tuesday dropping below 63k as tariff fears and Iran rhetoric spooked absolutely everyone.

At one point it was down nearly 7 percent on the week, people were rattled about whether 60k would hold again after it nearly cracked through that level back on February 5th. Bitcoin has lost about half its value since it touched 126 thousand in October which is grim reading for anyone who bought the top.

The macro stuff is doing most of the damage right now and thats the frustrating bit for bitcoin bulls who keep banging on about digital gold and inflation hedges.. turns out when equities wobble and the Fed looks less likely to cut rates bitcoin trades like a risk asset not a safe haven. You have gold is sitting pretty above 5 thousand an ounce meanwhile bitcoin is getting dragged around by every tariff headline and Treasury yield move going. CryptoQuant put out a report saying institutional demand has basically reversed.. the spot ETFs that were hoovering up 46 thousand coins this time last year are now net sellers which tells you everything about where the smart money thinks this is heading short term.

Then Wednesday happened and the whole thing flipped. Bitcoin ripped back above 68,500 in what looked like a proper short squeeze.. nearly 400 million in bearish bets got liquidated in 24 hours. The Fear and Greed index had been sat in extreme fear territory for most of February so the positioning was massively one sided.

Funding rates had gone negative multiple times which meant shorts were paying longs to stay in trades.. classic setup for a violent reversal and thats exactly what happened.

Altcoins went even harder on the bounce. Ether jumped 10 percent back through 2 thousand, Solana Doge and Cardano all popped double digits. Circle the stablecoin lot surged nearly 30 percent after smashing their earnings and Coinbase tagged along up 13 percent. Even the mining stocks caught a bid with MARA and Bitfarms up 6 or 7 percent.

The question now is whether this bounce has any legs or if its just a dead cat doing its thing before the next leg down. That 60k level is starting to look like the line in the sand.. analysts reckon if it breaks properly were looking at mid 50s territory and some are even whispering about 50 thousand. Time will tell but the volatility isnt going anywhere soon thats for sure.