Let's not sugarcoat it: this has been an ugly week. The crypto market just bled around $390 billion in value, and according to CoinDesk, Bitcoin and Ether are staring down their worst weekly rout since the FTX collapse. That's not a casual comparison — FTX was the kind of event that scarred this market for over a year. So when the same outlet reaches for that benchmark, you pay attention.
Right now $BTC is sitting at $60,559, down another 1.6% on the day. $ETH is the weaker hand at $1,558.26, off 2.4% in the same window. Notice something? The 24-hour moves aren't catastrophic by themselves. This wasn't one violent flush — it was a slow, grinding week of selling that stacked up into a big number. That's a different kind of pain, and honestly, sometimes a more dangerous one.
What kicked it off
CoinDesk points to the spark: a week that opened with Strategy selling bitcoin and ended as one of the largest drawdowns in years. When the market's most visible corporate holder is trimming, sentiment turns fast. People stop asking "how high" and start asking "who else is selling." That's how you get a $390 billion week — not from one headline, but from confidence quietly draining out of the room.
I've said this before and I'll say it again: respect the chart over the narrative. The story is just the excuse. The price is the truth.
The levels I'm watching
For Bitcoin, $60,000 is the line in the sand right now. We're hovering just above it at $60,559, and round numbers like this tend to act as psychological magnets. Lose it convincingly and I'd be eyeing the high-$50Ks fast, with little structure to lean on until then. Hold it and consolidate, and we've got a base to work from.
- $BTC: Watching $60,000 as the immediate floor. A daily close below opens the door to a deeper retest.
- $ETH: $1,558 is fragile. Below $1,500 and I'd expect momentum sellers to pile on; that round number matters here too.
Ether being the weaker performer doesn't shock me. In risk-off weeks, the majors hold up better than the rest of the stack, and even within the top two, ETH tends to take the harder hit when fear runs the show. That's the pattern. It doesn't mean it repeats, but it's worth knowing.
What it means
Here's my honest take. Weeks like this are where the house view earns its keep: buy fear, not euphoria. A $390 billion washout is exactly the kind of capitulation that, eventually, sets up the better entries. But — and this is the part people skip — don't be a hero on the first red candle. We've had a full week of selling and there's no guarantee the bottom is in.
The setup I respect is patience. I'm not catching this knife yet. I want to see Bitcoin defend $60,000, base out, and show me buyers stepping in before I add aggressively. If it slices through, I'd rather buy lower with confirmation than average down into a falling market and call it conviction.
What concerns me less is the comparison to FTX itself. That was an insolvency event — counterparty risk, frozen funds, contagion. This, so far, reads as a positioning and sentiment unwind tied to large-holder selling. Different animal. The fear is similar; the underlying cause looks more like a deleveraging than a structural blowup. But I'll let the data prove that out rather than assume it.
My call
I think we're closer to an opportunity than to a disaster, but not at the trigger yet. My plan: define the invalidation first. If $BTC holds $60K and stabilizes, I start scaling in. If it loses it, I wait for the high-$50Ks and reassess. Risk before upside — always.
Long term, I'm still constructive on the majors. Selloffs like this are the cost of admission for the upside that follows, and the market has a long history of paying people who buy when it's uncomfortable. Not guaranteed, but the setup favors patience over panic.
Keep your size sensible, keep your levels tight, and don't let a scary headline talk you out of a plan. Stay tuned — this one's not done telling its story.
The Right Trader publishes market commentary and opinion, not financial advice. Always do your own research.