Bitcoin Crashes Below $104K: Why Institutions Are Pulling Out

Bitcoin’s brutal week just got worse. After diving 3.2% in 24 hours to $103,849, the king coin is now down 17.5% from October’s peak—and the crypto market just flushed $1.3 billion in liquidations overnight. Here’s what actually broke things.

The Fed Did This

The story starts at the Federal Reserve. Yes, they cut rates by 25 basis points. Yes, that should be bullish. But Jerome Powell’s follow-up comments killed the vibe: further cuts in 2025 might not happen. That’s hawkish wrapped in dovish language, and institutions hated it.

Result? $800 million fled Bitcoin ETFs last week—largest exodus since March. Institutional buyers, who were basically soaking up every BTC mined daily, have now disappeared. Demand just fell below supply for the first time in 7 months.

The Fear & Greed Index screamed into 27 (lowest since March 2025). That’s not capitulation territory yet, but it’s close.

Technicals Got Brutalized

This isn’t just sentiment—the chart is ugly:

• Bitcoin fell below every major moving average (10, 50, 200 EMA/SMA)
• RSI at 35: technically oversold, but momentum won’t support a bounce
• MACD at -1,677: persistent bearish signal
• Momentum indicator at -7,831: buyers are checked out

Support zone $103,500–$100,000 is the last line. Break that and you’re looking at a test of lower levels.

Leverage Unwinding Is Brutal

Here’s where it gets messy. Over $1 billion in leveraged longs got liquidated in 24 hours. Open interest crashed 8.4% as traders panicked to close positions.

Derivatives volume exploded to $1.95 trillion (up 142% in one day)—that’s not new money, that’s the same money spinning out of control. Funding rates turned negative (-0.0036%), confirming traders expect more downside.

Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and BNB each dropped 5-9% during the same window. Altcoins are getting demolished worse than BTC.

The Dominance Trap

Bitcoin dominance jumped to 60.1%—investors are fleeing alts hard. This typically continues until liquidity improves and risk appetite returns. If dominance stays above 60.5%, alts are stuck in purgatory with thin order books and no buyers.

What’s the Setup Now?

Short-term relief rally could happen if BTC rebounds above $108,800—that signals buyers are back. But the macro environment is hostile, and without ETF inflows picking up, institutions staying sidelined is the bigger problem.

Key levels to watch:

• $108,800: If we see a close here, it’s early stages of recovery
• $103,500: If this breaks, psychological dam is gone
• ETF flows: Watch weekly data—if they don’t reverse, we’re in a longer correction

Bottom line: this dump was partly technical, partly derivative stress, but mostly macro. The Fed’s “maybe no more cuts” comment just reset market expectations, and institutions aren’t buying dips until that picture clears up.