Bitcoin Losses Now Equal 19% Of Market Cap, Echoing May 2022

bitcoinistPublished on 2026-02-21Last updated on 2026-02-21

Abstract

Analytics firm Glassnode reports that Bitcoin's current market conditions resemble those of May 2022, based on the surge in Relative Unrealized Loss. This metric, which measures the total unrealized losses of all underwater Bitcoin holders as a percentage of the market cap, has risen sharply to 19% amid recent price declines. The current level is the highest since 2023, and the trend mirrors the pattern observed during the onset of the 2022 bear market. Additionally, US spot Bitcoin ETFs are experiencing their largest drawdown in history, with outflows of over 100,300 BTC, indicating institutional de-risking and reinforcing a risk-off market environment. Bitcoin is currently trading around $66,700, showing signs of consolidation.

Analytics firm Glassnode has highlighted how the current Bitcoin market pain echoes May 2022 based on the trend in the Relative Unrealized Loss.

Bitcoin Relative Unrealized Loss Has Shot Up Recently

As explained by Glassnode in a new post on X, the current structure of the Bitcoin Relative Unrealized Loss could mirror May 2022. The “Relative Unrealized Loss” is an on-chain indicator that measures the amount of unrealized loss being held by BTC investors as a whole as a percentage of the asset’s market cap.

The metric works by going through the transaction history of each coin on the blockchain to determine the last price it was moved at. If this last selling price was less than the current spot price for any token, then the indicator considers that particular coin to be underwater right now.

The exact degree of loss carried by the token is equal to the difference between the two prices. The Relative Unrealized Loss sums up this value for all underwater coins and calculates what part of the market cap that it makes up for. Another indicator called the Relative Unrealized Profit tracks the tokens of the opposite type.

Now, here is the chart shared by the analytics firm that shows the trend in the Bitcoin Relative Unrealized Loss over the last several years:

The value of the metric seems to have shot up in recent days | Source: Glassnode on X

As displayed in the above graph, the Bitcoin Relative Unrealized Loss has witnessed a rise as the cryptocurrency’s price has gone through a bearish shift in recent months. The latest crash to $60,000, in particular, induced a sharp surge in the indicator.

Currently, the Relative Unrealized Loss is sitting at a value of about 19% as the asset trades near $67,000. From the chart, it’s apparent that this is the highest level that the indicator has hit since 2023. But more importantly, the recent trajectory in the metric has looked reminiscent to that witnessed during the bear-market transition from the last cycle.

“Current market pain echoes a similar structure seen in May 2022,” noted Glassnode. The bear market of 2022 didn’t reach its bottom until the FTX crash put investors in an unrealized loss exceeding 60% of the market cap. It now remains to be seen when Bitcoin will reach a low this time around.

In some other news, the market downturn that has followed since the October all-time high (ATH) has resulted in the largest drawdown in history for the US spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs), as the analytics firm has pointed out in another X post.

How the drawdown experienced by the US BTC spot ETFs has fluctuated over the last couple of years | Source: Glassnode on X

At the moment, Bitcoin spot ETFs are down 100,300 BTC. “Institutional de-risking has added structural weight to the ongoing weakness, reinforcing the broader risk-off environment,” explained Glassnode.

BTC Price

Bitcoin has been stuck in consolidation recently as its price is floating around $66,700.

The trend in the price of the coin over the last five days | Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView

Promised Year of Crypto IPOs? Only One Went Public in Six Months, Down 70%

The much-anticipated wave of crypto IPOs in 2026 has failed to materialize, with market conditions worsening dramatically. While SpaceX prepares for the largest IPO in history, raising $75 billion at a $1.75 trillion valuation, the crypto sector faces a frozen pipeline. The sole crypto IPO success this year, BitGo, serves as a cautionary tale. After launching on the NYSE in January at $18, its stock has plummeted approximately 70%. Other major contenders have stalled or delayed. Kraken, which secretly filed in late 2025, has put its plans on ice, seeing its valuation drop 33% to $13.3 billion. Consensys has postponed its filing until autumn at the earliest, and Bitpanda is poised to miss its self-imposed H1 deadline for a Frankfurt listing. This widespread retreat is driven by a severe liquidity crunch. Bitcoin has fallen below $60,000, with capital being diverted to AI stocks and the massive SpaceX offering. The poor performance of earlier crypto listings like Gemini and the stagnant price of Coinbase further dampen investor appetite. A key underlying pressure is the impending US midterm elections in November, which could alter the currently favorable regulatory landscape. Companies had hoped to go public during this window of policy certainty, but challenging market dynamics have overridden those plans. The transparency that comes with being a public company is now seen as a potential liability rather than a benefit in a down market. The industry's fate now hinges on a few critical watchpoints: whether Kraken restarts its process in H2, if Consensys files in the fall, and if SpaceX's debut can revitalize market liquidity. Otherwise, the promised "crypto IPO year" will likely be pushed beyond the election.

marsbit12m ago

Promised Year of Crypto IPOs? Only One Went Public in Six Months, Down 70%

marsbit12m ago

Behind Musk and Huang Jen-hsun's 'AI Factories', an Unseen Battle for Freshwater Has Begun

Behind the "AI factories" of Elon Musk and Jensen Huang lies a hidden battle for a critical resource: fresh water. As AI models like ChatGPT and Claude process billions of prompts daily, they consume vast amounts of water for cooling. By 2030, global AI infrastructure is projected to use 9.3 trillion liters annually—enough to meet the basic needs of 1.3 billion people. This "water grab" stems from the massive heat generated by high-powered GPUs. Over 70% of data centers use evaporative cooling systems, where water absorbs heat and evaporates into the atmosphere, depleting local groundwater. Training models like GPT-4 can consume over 600 million liters of water. Tech giants like Google and Microsoft report skyrocketing water usage, sparking conflicts with local communities over resources. A flashpoint occurred in Memphis, Tennessee, where Musk's xAI built the Colossus supercomputer. It draws nearly 3.8 million liters of drinking water daily from local aquifers, leading to public outrage and legal action. In response, xAI is building an $80 million water recycling plant to use treated wastewater instead. Facing pressure, companies like Microsoft promote "waterless" closed-loop cooling systems. However, these systems increase electricity consumption by 20-30%, shifting the water burden to power plants, which require immense cooling water themselves—a case of indirect water footprint transfer. For China's AI industry, this crisis offers a strategic warning and opportunity. Instead of replicating the West's resource-intensive model, China can leverage its "East Data, West Computing" policy to locate data centers in cooler, water-rich regions like Guizhou. Furthermore, developing lightweight edge computing for smart homes and embodied AI robots can drastically reduce the need for constant cloud queries, cutting both water and energy consumption at the source. The freshwater war underscores a fundamental question: Will AI be a tool for human advancement or a silicon-based monster competing for our planet's last drops of clean water? The answer is becoming clearer as the water vapor rises.

marsbit58m ago

Behind Musk and Huang Jen-hsun's 'AI Factories', an Unseen Battle for Freshwater Has Begun

marsbit58m ago

AGI is Just One Step Away

The article discusses Anthropic's release of the Fable 5 model, a heavily restricted version of its powerful Mythos model. Initially unveiled in April, Mythos reportedly identified over 10,000 high-risk vulnerabilities for 50 enterprise clients, causing significant concern. Due to its dangerous capabilities in areas like autonomous cyber-attacks and biochemical weapons design guidance (classified as CB-1 level), the unaltered Mythos 5 remains limited to about 200 vetted entities like government agencies. Fable 5, released with a safety classifier, demonstrates extraordinary performance, leading benchmarks in coding (SWE-Bench Pro), software engineering, and research. It exhibits true "long-horizon agency," autonomously planning and executing complex, multi-step tasks like migrating 50 million lines of code in a day, moving beyond simple question-answering. The article positions Fable 5 at OpenAI's Level 3 ("Agent") and progressing toward Level 4 ("Innovator"), suggesting AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) is within reach, potentially 18-24 months away. To mitigate risks, Anthropic implemented a two-layer safety "cage": a silent routing system that redirects dangerous queries to a weaker model, and a mandatory 30-day data retention policy for all Mythos traffic to detect patterns of malicious use. Despite its high cost ($10/$50 per million input/output tokens), the model targets the enterprise market, where its unparalleled productivity and defensive capabilities against AI-powered cyber threats justify the premium. This signals a market maturation where top-tier AI becomes a strategic, high-value tool for businesses, potentially widening the gap with consumer-focused models and accelerating the rise of "one-person companies" while disrupting labor markets.

marsbit1h ago

marsbit1h ago

Restoring Crypto Privacy: ZCASH (ZEC) Makes A Move After 50% Crash

Following a severe price crash of over 50% triggered by the discovery of a critical counterfeiting vulnerability in its Orchard privacy pool, Zcash (ZEC) is taking steps to restore confidence. The bug, found by a security researcher using AI, could have allowed undetected creation of fake ZEC tokens. Developers from the Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL) and others quickly patched the flaw, helping the price rebound over 70%. However, Orchard's privacy features make it impossible to verify if any counterfeit tokens were actually created before the fix. To address this, key ecosystem groups including Shielded Labs and The Zcash Foundation have proposed a new system called Ironwood. Its primary goal is to restore users' ability to independently verify Zcash's total circulating supply. Once activated, node operators could confirm the supply hasn't been tampered with. The Ironwood proposal would also block any new coin minting in the Orchard pool and restrict fund movement through a controlled mechanism. This system could provide evidence on whether the vulnerability was ever exploited. If no excess ZEC attempts to leave the pool, it suggests no counterfeiting occurred. Any attempted exit of fake coins would be blocked and destroyed, publicly revealing any attack while protecting the legitimate supply.

bitcoinist1h ago

Restoring Crypto Privacy: ZCASH (ZEC) Makes A Move After 50% Crash

bitcoinist1h ago

Solana Real-World Assets Gain Momentum With Significant Spike In Transfer Activity

Solana's price has declined recently, breaking key support levels. However, the network's activity, especially in the Real-World Assets (RWA) sector, shows strong momentum. The ecosystem recorded its largest daily transfer volume ever, surpassing $1.49 billion—a more than 2x increase, led significantly by preSPAX. This signals growing adoption of tokenized assets on Solana. Analyst Zensei highlights Solana as the leading platform for spot trading, noting the SOL/USDC pair's 24-hour volume of over $4.9 billion far exceeds other major markets. Another analyst, Crypto Patel, points out that SOL is trading within a key Fibonacci Retracement Zone, similar to a past pattern that preceded a major rally. While an "Altcoin Season" is seen as necessary for a potential push toward $1,000, the current accumulation zone is between $40 and $60.

bitcoinist2h ago

Solana Real-World Assets Gain Momentum With Significant Spike In Transfer Activity

bitcoinist2h ago

Trading

Spot

Futures

Hot Articles

What is $BITCOIN

DIGITAL GOLD ($BITCOIN): A Comprehensive Analysis Introduction to DIGITAL GOLD ($BITCOIN) DIGITAL GOLD ($BITCOIN) is a blockchain-based project operating on the Solana network, which aims to combine the characteristics of traditional precious metals with the innovation of decentralized technologies. While it shares a name with Bitcoin, often referred to as “digital gold” due to its perception as a store of value, DIGITAL GOLD is a separate token designed to create a unique ecosystem within the Web3 landscape. Its goal is to position itself as a viable alternative digital asset, although specifics regarding its applications and functionalities are still developing. What is DIGITAL GOLD ($BITCOIN)? DIGITAL GOLD ($BITCOIN) is a cryptocurrency token explicitly designed for use on the Solana blockchain. In contrast to Bitcoin, which provides a widely recognized value storage role, this token appears to focus on broader applications and characteristics. Notable aspects include: Blockchain Infrastructure: The token is built on the Solana blockchain, known for its capacity to handle high-speed and low-cost transactions. Supply Dynamics: DIGITAL GOLD has a maximum supply capped at 100 quadrillion tokens (100P $BITCOIN), although details regarding its circulating supply are currently undisclosed. Utility: While precise functionalities are not explicitly outlined, there are indications that the token could be utilized for various applications, potentially involving decentralized applications (dApps) or asset tokenization strategies. Who is the Creator of DIGITAL GOLD ($BITCOIN)? At present, the identity of the creators and development team behind DIGITAL GOLD ($BITCOIN) remains unknown. This situation is typical among many innovative projects within the blockchain space, particularly those aligning with decentralized finance and meme coin phenomena. While such anonymity may foster a community-driven culture, it intensifies concerns about governance and accountability. Who are the Investors of DIGITAL GOLD ($BITCOIN)? The available information indicates that DIGITAL GOLD ($BITCOIN) does not have any known institutional backers or prominent venture capital investments. The project seems to operate on a peer-to-peer model focused on community support and adoption rather than traditional funding routes. Its activity and liquidity are primarily situated on decentralized exchanges (DEXs), such as PumpSwap, rather than established centralized trading platforms, further highlighting its grassroots approach. How DIGITAL GOLD ($BITCOIN) Works The operational mechanics of DIGITAL GOLD ($BITCOIN) can be elaborated on based on its blockchain design and network attributes: Consensus Mechanism: By leveraging Solana’s unique proof-of-history (PoH) combined with a proof-of-stake (PoS) model, the project ensures efficient transaction validation contributing to the network's high performance. Tokenomics: While specific deflationary mechanisms have not been extensively detailed, the vast maximum token supply implies that it may cater to microtransactions or niche use cases that are still to be defined. Interoperability: There exists the potential for integration with Solana’s broader ecosystem, including various decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms. However, the details regarding specific integrations remain unspecified. Timeline of Key Events Here is a timeline that highlights significant milestones concerning DIGITAL GOLD ($BITCOIN): 2023: The initial deployment of the token occurs on the Solana blockchain, marked by its contract address. 2024: DIGITAL GOLD gains visibility as it becomes available for trading on decentralized exchanges like PumpSwap, allowing users to trade it against SOL. 2025: The project witnesses sporadic trading activity and potential interest in community-led engagements, although no noteworthy partnerships or technical advancements have been documented as of yet. Critical Analysis Strengths Scalability: The underlying Solana infrastructure supports high transaction volumes, which could enhance the utility of $BITCOIN in various transaction scenarios. Accessibility: The potential low trading price per token could attract retail investors, facilitating wider participation due to fractional ownership opportunities. Risks Lack of Transparency: The absence of publicly known backers, developers, or an audit process may yield skepticism regarding the project's sustainability and trustworthiness. Market Volatility: The trading activity is heavily reliant on speculative behavior, which can result in significant price volatility and uncertainty for investors. Conclusion DIGITAL GOLD ($BITCOIN) emerges as an intriguing yet ambiguous project within the rapidly evolving Solana ecosystem. While it attempts to leverage the “digital gold” narrative, its departure from Bitcoin's established role as a store of value underscores the need for a clearer differentiation of its intended utility and governance structure. Future acceptance and adoption will likely depend on addressing the current opacity and defining its operational and economic strategies more explicitly. Note: This report encompasses synthesised information available as of October 2023, and developments may have transpired beyond the research period.

363 Total ViewsPublished 2025.05.13Updated 2025.05.13

Meet ZetaChain: The Universal L1 for Apps That Work Everywhere — Even on Bitcoin

ZetaChain is the first ever Universal Blockchain to enable native connection across all blockchain ecosystems.

48.3k Total ViewsPublished 2025.06.16Updated 2025.06.16

Meet ZetaChain: The Universal L1 for Apps That Work Everywhere — Even on Bitcoin

Fractal Bitcoin: Scaling Bitcoin as a Recursive System

Fractal Bitcoin is a Layer-1 scalability solution built on the Bitcoin core code, enabling infinite scalability through a recursive approach.

47.9k Total ViewsPublished 2025.06.30Updated 2025.06.30

Fractal Bitcoin: Scaling Bitcoin as a Recursive System

Discussions

Welcome to the HTX Community. Here, you can stay informed about the latest platform developments and gain access to professional market insights. Users' opinions on the price of BTC (BTC) are presented below.