Bitcoin Briefly Drops Below $60,000, Plunging 16% in a Single Week as Meme Coins Bear the Brunt First
0xBroomberg
Bitcoin plunged 16% in a single week to a low of $59,099 — its weakest since October 2024. Strategy's sell-off triggered hundreds of millions in forced liquidations, and a stronger-than-expected May payrolls report pushed Treasury yields higher, crushing risk appetite on two fronts at once.
How did this crash actually unfold?
Michael Saylor's Strategy sold part of its bitcoin holdings, triggering hundreds of millions of dollars in forced liquidations. This means → one large holder selling set off a chain reaction, as leveraged positions were automatically closed by exchanges.
Then May non-farm payrolls came in stronger than expected, driving Treasury yields higher. In plain terms = the economy looked too strong for rate cuts, so money fled high-risk assets.
The two forces combined to push bitcoin to a Friday low of $59,099 — more than half below its all-time high near $126,000.
How badly was Strategy itself hit?
Strategy's stock fell 24% for the week, its worst weekly performance since November 2022.
Bearish bets surged in the options market: Friday's put volume was more than double call volume. Of roughly $335 million in options premium traded that day, $250 million was tied to puts.
WNTR, an ETF that shorts Strategy, has risen 30% since May 11. This reflects a market not just selling bitcoin but actively betting that Saylor's strategy will keep deteriorating.
"Digital gold" and "high-beta tech" — why did both narratives break at once?
A month ago, bitcoin's 30-day Pearson correlation with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 was near perfect positive. Over the past few weeks that relationship collapsed — global equities kept setting records while bitcoin failed to follow.
This means → bitcoin was neither bought as a safe haven like gold nor chased like a tech stock. Both core narratives failed simultaneously.
Syz Group's CIO noted that speculative capital is rotating into AI stocks, memory chips, and blockbuster IPOs, crowding out crypto.
How serious is the Saylor credibility crisis?
Strategy's floating-rate preferred stock STRC fell to $92 on Thursday — its lowest since last November.
Saylor had publicly called STRC an alternative to selling bitcoin. He then turned around and sold bitcoin. In plain terms = he told the market "I won't sell," then sold — burning investor trust.
Quantify Funds' CEO said the market's risk premium on Saylor has jumped sharply; STRC now needs a significantly higher yield to trade back to par.
Why are meme coins falling harder than bitcoin?
Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) both dropped about 9%, making them the worst-performing major tokens in this sell-off.
DOGE broke below a four-month ascending channel held since February. This means → the decline is not just a number — the entire uptrend structure is broken and the technical picture has turned bearish. A sustained break below $0.0819 points to the next support zone near $0.067.
SHIB is trading below all major moving averages, printing lower highs and lower lows. Despite increased token burns and ecosystem expansion, price action has found no support.
What are derivatives and on-chain data saying?
DOGE futures open interest is declining; SHIB open interest hovers near cycle lows — derivatives traders have shifted to a defensive posture.
Both DOGE and SHIB are seeing significant net exchange outflows — typically read as accumulation — yet prices have not responded. This means → market participants are driven by macro sentiment and momentum, not long-term positioning logic.
Momentum indicators show oversold readings, but neither token is flashing a credible reversal signal. Until buyers reclaim broken support levels, the path of least resistance still points down.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.