The post Yen Carry Trade Unwind Could Margin-Call Bitcoin appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Bitcoin sometimes sells off hard on days with no crypto headlines. A recurring driver sits outside crypto: a yen-funded carry unwind that forces cross-asset deleveraging, then transmits into BTC through thinner liquidity, wider spreads, and fast position reduction in derivatives. Here’s the core mechanism in one line: if USD/JPY moves fast enough to trigger margin and VAR cuts, BTC can sell off like it got bad news even when crypto headlines stay quiet. Japan’s FX officials have started speaking in a way that markets treat as a constraint. On Feb. 12, 2026, Japan’s top currency diplomat, Atsushi Mimura, said Tokyo “has not lowered its guard” against FX volatility after a sharp move in the yen, and he said authorities are watching markets with “high urgency” while staying in close contact with US counterparts. When messaging shifts toward urgency, carry positioning often becomes more sensitive to speed and to levels that traders associate with intervention risk. That turns USD/JPY into a “don’t get caught” market where traders cut carry exposure earlier and faster. BIS data helps frame the stakes: yen-denominated loans to non-banks resident outside Japan rose to about ¥40 trillion by March 2024, roughly $250 billion using BIS’ conversion at the time. A channel with that scale can influence global risk conditions, and crypto trades inside those conditions. The effect on crypto is mechanical. A carry unwind can start in FX, spread into equities and credit via higher volatility and tighter risk limits, then reach Bitcoin as a risk reduction flow. Bitcoin’s price action can look idiosyncratic in the moment, then line up cleanly with global deleveraging once you track what happened to funding conditions and cross-asset volatility. Yen carry trade, in plain English A carry trade borrows in a low-rate currency and invests in assets with a higher expected…

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Filed under: News - @ February 22, 2026 6:16 am