The post Bitcoin Hashrate Slips as Macro Pressure Builds: What’s Really Behind the Drop?   appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

With Bitcoin tagging a low of $74.5K yesterday, BTC is officially in the midst of its deepest drawdown of the current cycle. From the all time high near $126K set in October, last week’s pullback of around 12% means Bitcoin has corrected around 37% since the all time high. So far Bitcoin is respecting the critical level of $74.5K, which coincides with the April 2025 lows. That said, other key levels like the U.S. Bitcoin Spot ETFs cost basis have been broken and Bitcoin has fallen below its True Mean Market price for the first time in 2.5 years. It is clear that Bitcoin’s downward momentum has picked up steam over the past week, but what’s causing the decline is a confluence of factors rather than a single point of stress. Renewed macro fears, the implications of Kevin Warsh being anointed as the new Fed Chair, ongoing leverage unwinds and emerging stress signals from declining hashrate are all contributing to the current market environment.   Leverage Being Unwound Across Crypto Markets  January 31st saw the highest single day liquidations since the October 10th cascade event. $2.56 billion worth of positions were wiped out, making it the 10th largest liquidation event crypto has ever seen. For perspective, this was bigger than the Covid and the FTX crash.   What’s remarkable is that this happened during a time when BTC was going through one of its largest deleveragings. Open interest is now half of what it was at the October all time high. The scale of liquidation may seem counterintuitive given Bitcoin’s aggregate open interest has fallen by nearly 50% in 4 months. However, the explanation lies less in the quantity of leverage and more in how and where this was built.  For 75 days, Bitcoin was constricted within a tight range between $95K and…

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Filed under: News - @ February 3, 2026 11:24 am