Bitcoin drops toward $69,000 as Saylor sale spooks investors while AI tokens buck the trend

Markets Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Bitcoin drops toward $69,000 as Saylor sale spooks investors while AI tokens buck the trend The price of bitcoin fell to its lowest since April 7 as Strategy's sale dented sentiment, while AI tokens H and NEAR surged and DeFi TVL hit a 20-month low. By Oliver Knight , Omkar Godbole | Edited by Sheldon Reback Jun 2, 2026, 10:00 a.m. 2 min read Make preferred on Bitcoin price (CoinDesk Data) What to know : Bitcoin broke below $70,000 for the first time since April 7, with seven of the past eight four-hour candles closing red. AI tokens bucked the trend as Humanity Protocol (H) and Near Protocol (NEAR) advanced over 24 hours. DeFi is deteriorating, with total value locked across all protocols sliding to some $78 billion, the least since October 2024. Bitcoin BTC $ 69,304.97 fell to its lowest level since April 7 on Tuesday, breaking below $70,000 in a downswing that has accelerated sharply since Sunday. Seven of the past eight four-hour candles have closed red, leaving the largest cryptocurrency down more than 2% since midnight UTC. The move was compounded by growing unease over Strategy's (MSTR) bitcoin thesis after the largest publicly traded holder of the cryptocurrency sold $2.5 million worth of the token. That's seen as a signal of potentially more sales after $30 million of BTC was transferred to a Coinbase Prime wallet last week. Ether (ETH) tracked the slide, shedding around 1.7% since midnight UTC and continuing to trade below the key $2,000 level. Not everything is pointing lower, however. Optimism around artificial intelligence is providing a boost for AI-adjacent tokens, with Humanity Protocol (H) rising 18% on Tuesday alone, part of a remarkable 278% rally since May 28. Elsewhere in the altcoin market, Stellar (XLM) lost more than 6% since midnight as it continues to unwind a 102% surge from last month, while SUI and ETHFI lost around 3% apiece. Derivatives positioning Bitcoin open interest (OI) sits at $19.2 billion, essentially unchanged from a week ago, with speculative positioning broadly unchanged. Funding rates remain positive across multiple venues at 0%–10% annualized. The three-month annualized basis rose to around 3%, up from 2.4% last week, pointing to a continued mild increase in institutional risk appetite. Options positioning is sending mixed signals. The put/call volume over the past 24 hours splits 65/35 in favor of calls, but one-week 25-delta skew has spiked to 17% from 11% a week ago, indicating a sharp pickup in demand for downside protection. Front-end implied vol (DVOL) has recovered to 39 from multimonth lows, confirming the recent volatility compression has ended. Coinglass data shows $768 million in 24-hour liquidations, with a 84-16 split between longs and shorts. BTC ($448 million) and ETH ($92 million) led in terms of notional liquidations. Binance liquidation heatmap indicates $68,600 as a core liquidation level to monitor in case of a price drop. Token talk The AI sector is outperforming the broader crypto market on Tuesday, with Humanity Protocol (H) and Near Protocol (NEAR) posting gains of 8% and 14.5%, respectively, over the past 24 hours, although NEAR has been flat since midnight UTC following a bout of profit-taking. The AI-dominated CoinDesk Computing Select Index (CPUS) has not fully captured that strength, however, losing 1.7% with chainlink LINK $ 8.7824 , the heaviest component, dragging the benchmark lower as it fell 2.5%. The DeFi sector tells a different story. Total value locked (TVL) across all protocols has slumped to the lowest since October 2024, sitting at around $78 billion after shedding 1.85% in the past 24 hours, a sign that the liquidity rebuild many expected this year has yet to materialize following a series of hacks. CoinMarketCap's "Altcoin Season" index has picked up the momentum, climbing from 38/100 to 45/100 since Monday as it diverges from bitcoin. Crypto Markets Today More For You Bitcoin's biggest ETF selloff yet hits $3.4 billion as AI stocks keep climbing By Sam Reynolds | Edited by Shaurya Malwa 3 hours ago U.S. spot bitcoin funds bled cash for 11 straight sessions through Monday, the longest redemption streak since their 2024 launch, as risk dollars rotated toward an AI-led equities rally. What to know : U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs have logged a record 11 straight sessions of net outflows totaling about $3.45 billion as bitcoin’s price slid toward $70,000. The withdrawals, including $484 million in the latest session, coincide with strong risk appetite in AI and semiconductor stocks, underscored by a 6 percent gain in... 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