Bitcoin Tests $83K After Breaking Below $85K—Key Support Still Intact

Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin slid 2%, once again breaching the $85,000 mark. Still, it managed to defend a critical support level near $83,000.

• As CoinGlass reports, liquidations were subdued at $246 million, a whisper rather than a roar.
• Most of the damage came from long positions—$175 million undone by sudden shifts.
• Bybit led the pack with $81.7M in liquidations, signaling serious volume, fearless trading, and a full-circle comeback in user trust since that infamous breach.

• The market’s Fear and Greed Index sits at 29, firmly in the “Fear” territory.
• Bitcoin now commands 63.2% of total crypto market capitalization, steadily increasing as altcoins lose ground.
• With the Altseason Index stuck at 16, momentum remains squarely in Bitcoin’s favor.

BTC may be wobbling short-term, but altcoins are dropping harder—cementing their fall from relevance, at least for now.

BTC Technical Setup: Still Facing Headwinds

Technically, Bitcoin has slipped back into the $80K–$85K channel, with $83K now serving as an important support level.

Despite attempts, the price hasn’t managed to break and hold above $85K, which not only marks a major psychological threshold but also coincides with the 200-day EMA—adding weight to the resistance.

Although the price remains above the downward-sloping trendline, these signals reintroduce a sense of ambiguity into the broader market outlook.

One bearish development catching traders’ attention is a looming “Death Cross”—where the short-term moving average falls beneath the long-term one. This setup, now forming on both Bitcoin and the S&P 500 charts, is historically viewed as a strong sell signal.

Though not always predictive of deep downtrends, past instances in BTC’s chart history suggest it warrants close monitoring.

Axel Adler Jr., an analyst at CryptoQuant, believes Bitcoin’s sharp rise was fueled almost entirely by the derivatives market, where long traders dominated with a cumulative take volume of $800 million.

While similar patterns have previously preceded rapid price gains—as BTC did this time, climbing from $78,000 to $85,000 within days—Adler cautions that the absence of strong spot buying could make the rally fragile.

Сheck this out: What are market makers and takers?

Bitcoin ETFs See a Revival in Institutional Interest

On April 15, 2025, net inflows into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs hit $76.4 million—the first significant positive activity since April 2.

After a string of sluggish sessions (including yesterday’s underwhelming $1.5 million), the renewed inflow signals a possible shift in sentiment from large-scale investors.

Biggest ETF flows on the board?

• iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) from BlackRock – $38.2 million
• 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) from Ark Invest – $13.4 million

The cooling interest in BTC-backed ETFs is hard to miss: more than $550 million has exited the space since the start of April.

According to analysts, many institutional investors are losing faith in the idea of Bitcoin as “digital gold.” Instead, its correlation with equities continues to strengthen—while physical gold, the original store of value, has risen over 15% since March 2025.

China Wants to Dump Seized BTC—but There’s a Catch

In a strange twist of economic irony, Chinese authorities are reportedly looking to sell off confiscated Bitcoin—not to embrace crypto, but to realize paper profits and preempt legal entanglements.

Yet beneath the surface lies a deeper contradiction: with crypto trading banned and no clear policy for managing digital seizures, any such sale tiptoes through a legal minefield—one strewn with ambiguity and the specter of corruption.

Related: China Turns U.S. Tariffs Into a Catalyst for Economic Growth

Select Chinese provincial governments are now working with private entities employing offshore mechanisms to discreetly convert digital assets into cash.

Estimates indicate that regional balances alone contain around 15,000 BTC, valued at $1.4 billion. Data from Bitbo places China’s national Bitcoin holdings at 194,000 BTC—about $16 billion—ranking just behind the U.S. in global state ownership.

A more centralised management would help China maximize the value of the seized cryptocurrencies,

expresses Winston Ma, adjunct professor at NYU Law School and a former managing director of China Investment Corp (CIC).

Ru Haiyang, co-CEO at Hong Kong's largest licensed crypto exchange HashKey, suggests China is more likely to quietly build a strategic Bitcoin reserve than liquidate it. For now, accumulation seems to align with Beijing’s long game.

But with economic headwinds intensifying—from geopolitical frictions to trade war fallout—that calculus may shift. Under pressure, even ideology bends. The reserves they swore to keep may become the assets they’re forced to sell.

Were such sales to materialize, a localized correction would be almost inevitable. But for now, the prospect of a sweeping Chinese sell-off remains largely theoretical.

In the immediate outlook, Bitcoin’s direction will hinge on three psychological markers: $85,000, $83,000, and $80,000. These thresholds may chart the next leg up—but few in the analyst community believe $90,000 is within close reach.

Read on: Beyond the Tariffs: The U.S.–China Trade War’s Ripple Effect on Crypto