coindesk.com
Bitcoin's ($BTC) slow bleed lower over the past weeks has sped up Friday, the price dipping more than 3% in the past 24 hours to slide to about a five-week low of $63,700, now lower by 9% over the past month.
Contrarian bulls, however, might take comfort as indicators tracked by analysis firm Santiment show that crowd sentiment for $BTC is now in its fourth week of “extreme negative” reading.
“The crowd is mainly fearful or disinterested toward Bitcoin," the firm said in an X post Friday. "This extended level of FUD is rare, as traders continue to capitulate,” they added. "$BTC trader fatigue, combined with whale accumulation, generally leads to bounces that reward the patient."
Santiment’s Weighted Sentiment Index measures bitcoin mentions on X and compares the ratio of positive to negative comments and trading volumes to gauge what the crowd is generally feeling about bitcoin. The index, which shows a -0.73 reading as of Friday, has been negative since May 23.
Elsewhere, data from Google Trends shows a decline in retail search interest. The tool allows users to compare the relative volume of searches. A line trending downward means that a search term's popularity relative to other popular terms is decreasing. Worldwide searches for “bitcoin” have steadily fallen since March 2024, data shows.
$BTC prices have generally suffered in the past few weeks amid $1 billion in sales from large holders, dollar strength and a strong U.S. technology index market that may be drawing investor money.
Outflow activity from U.S.-listed spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has also reached its worst since late April, with $900 million leaving the products so far this week. These figures are nearing the $1.2 billion in total net outflows in trading sessions from April 24 to May 2.
Some traders expect bitcoin to reach the $60,000 level in the near-term due to the lack of growth catalysts, although the long-term outlook remains bullish, as previously reported.