On February 2nd, Bitcoin recorded intense volatilty, dropping to prices not seen since April 2025. The general crypto market is down by over 2% in the past 24 hours, with a market cap of $2.6 trillion.
On February 1st, the crypto market moved to the Extreme Fear zone, and the CMC Crypto Fear and Greed Index pointed at 18, sliding to 15 today.
However, Binance made an important announcement earlier today, supporting Bitcoin.
Bitcoin's recent price trajectory
At the moment of writing this article, BTC is trading above $77,000, after dipping to $74,000 ealrier today. BTC is down by over 1% in the past 24 hours.
The digital asset's price dropped from $79,000 levels on February 1st, bottoming at $74,000, before rebounding to current levels.
Bitcoin's significant price decline debuted last week, after reaching a top above $90,000 on January 28. On January 29, the digital asset's price dropped to $84,000 levels, continuing its downward trajectory the next day.
Bitcoin closed January in the red for the first time since 2022
The digital asset closed January in the red, down by more than 10%. 2026 is the first year in which the digital asset closed January in the red since 2022, when BTC recorded monthly losses of over 16%, according to CoinGlass data.
Since 2013, this is the seventh year in which BTC recorded monthly losses in January. In 2015, the digital asset saw the highest losses in the first month of the year, above 33%.
Bitcoin price drop triggers
Bitcoin's recent price decline was fueled by multiple factors, including a longer pause in institutional interest, crypto liquidations, and FUD in the industry, among others.
BTC ETFs outflows
Last week, the US-based BTC ETFs saw four consecutive days of outflows, totalling approximately $1,5 billion. BTC ETFs recorded outflows since January 27, with the biggest outflow day being on January 29, above $817 million. SoSoValue data shows.
On January 30, BlackRock's BTC ETF, IBIT, saw its biggest outflow day ever, above $528 million, surpassing another day of significant outflows above $523 million, recorded on November 18, 2025.
Commodities recent crash
January 30 also marked the worst day for silver. On Friday, the silver spot price saw its biggest decline in over 4 decades, following a recent rally that led to new ATHs.
Crypto liquidations
Crypto liquidations continued during the week, and the 24-hour liquidations topped $828 million, with almost $600 million in longs, CoinGlass data shows.
Ethereum leads in 24-hour liquidations with over $312,7 million, followed by Bitcoin with more than $274 million.
It's also important to highlight that the total crypto liquidations exceeded $5 billion over the past four days, according to The Kobeissi Letter, marking the largest wave of liquidations since October 10, when the market witnessed over $19 billion in liquidations.
Apart from these factors, the uncertainty triggered by the tensions between the US and Iran, the recent partial closing of the US government, the release of the Epstein files, even an AI agents' takeover of the world, and other more or less fabricated events are also fueling fear across all markets.
Crypto's macro stress test
Ryan Lee, Chief Analyst at Bitget, highlighted that the recent drawdown in BTC below $75,000 and ETH below $2,200, was driven mostly by ongoing negative sentiments in the crypto industry, followed by pullbacks in gold and precious metals as a classic correction.
He also added the uncertainty from the new Fed Chair, and broader macro liquidity concerns as key market decline drivers.
Lee sees the latest market drop more as a deleveraging event boosted by a macro shock, rather than a structural shift:
"While the underlying buying power in the crypto ecosystem remains strong,short-term risks from cascading liquidations could exacerbate volatilty, emphasizing the need for resilient infrasctrucurte and risk management to foster sustainable industry growth."
Factors supporting the crypto market
However, despite all the FUD that's been plaguing both TradFi and DeFi ecosystems, leading to price crashes, there are still reasons for optimism.
Continued BTC accumulation by Strategy
For instance, even if Strategy's BTC reserves' dollar value dropped during the recent market crash, Michael Saylor hinted at the company buying more Bitcoin, reinforcing the company's belief in the asset.
Binance's BTC SAFU reserves
Another important event worth mentioning is Binance's recent announcement, highlighting the exchange's belief in Bitcoin as the core asset of the crypto ecosystem.
On January 30, Binance announced that it will convert its $1 billion SAFU fund to BTC reserves by the beginning of next month, showing strong support for BTC.
On February 2nd, Binance revealed that the exchange has completed the first batch of BTC conversion for the SAFU fund, with a value of $100 million.
Binance will continue to buy $900 million in BTC throughout February, supporting BTC despite market volatilty.
Other market triggers
Key triggers for a market rebound also include the following, according to Lee:
- A rebound in the Fear and Greed Index above 40
- Reduced liquidation volumes
- Renewed inflows in BTC ETFs
Lee anticipates short-term oscillations between $70,000 and $80,000 for BTC, with potential downside spikes due to thin liquidity, while ETH may range between $1,800 and $2,600.
