Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $60,000 on June 24 for the first time in seven weeks, with analysts attributing the drop to “whale games.”
**BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: TradingView**
**Whale “Spoofing” Drains BTC Longs**
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView recorded new local lows of $59,809 on Bitstamp after Wall Street’s market opened. The downward trend, which started after the weekly close, extended through the Asian and Wall Street trading sessions, leading to a 5% loss for BTC/USD within a day.
In response, trading resource Material Indicators highlighted a recurring scenario in exchange order books. They pointed out that whales were manipulating liquidity to influence price momentum.
“Near-range ask liquidity is paper-thin in the Bitcoin order book, so it won’t take much to push the price up from here,” they noted on X.
**BTC/USDT order book data for Binance. Source: Material Indicators/X**
An accompanying chart showed liquidity clusters for the BTC/USDT pair on Binance, the world’s largest exchange. Material Indicators mentioned upcoming U.S. macroeconomic data releases and noted that whale-driven liquidity “spoofing” was also evident, similar to the previous week.
Data from monitoring resource CoinGlass illustrated the impact on BTC long positions, with liquidations exceeding $136.5 million within 24 hours, and total crypto liquidations reaching $265 million.
**Crypto liquidations (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass**
**BTC Price Retracement “Not Even Average”**
Comparisons of the current pullback with others since the latest Bitcoin bull market began in early 2023 have been made. Trader, analyst, and podcast host Scott Melker, known as the “Wolf Of All Streets,” viewed a 10-month low in Bitcoin’s daily relative strength index (RSI) as a positive sign for a local price bottom.
“RSI is finally touching oversold (has not closed there yet),” he confirmed.
**BTC/USD 1-day chart with RSI data. Source: TradingView**
RSI observers typically look for values below 30 to identify potential dip-buying opportunities, indicating the asset is “oversold.” The daily RSI was at 26.7 at the time of writing.
Popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital also noted the relatively minor nature of the recent drop compared to previous ones this year and last.
“Across all retraces dating back to the Bear Market Bottom of 2022… The average retrace depth is -22%,” he calculated.
**BTC/USD chart. Source: Rekt Capital/X**
This article does not provide investment advice or recommendations. All investment and trading activities involve risks, and readers should conduct their own research before making decisions.