New York, February 10, 2026, 10:08 EST — Regular session
- Bitcoin slid about 1.4% to around $68,700 after failing to hold above $70,000.
- U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs posted net inflows on Feb. 9, a closely watched gauge of institutional demand.
- Traders are lining up around this week’s U.S. jobs and inflation prints for the next directional cue.
Bitcoin fell on Tuesday, slipping back under $70,000 and giving up early gains as traders stayed wary after a volatile stretch. The cryptocurrency was last down about 1.4% at $68,743, after swinging between $67,958 and $71,029.
The move matters because $70,000 has become a near-term fault line. When bitcoin can’t hold it, momentum tends to fade fast; when it clears it, sellers have lately met it just as quickly.
Flows into U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds — products that track the token’s price and trade like stocks — have also become the market’s daily scorecard. The funds logged a net inflow of $144.9 million on Feb. 9, according to data compiled by Farside Investors. 1
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, fell in tandem, last down about 2.5% at $2,013.
Bitcoin has churned inside a broad $68,000-to-$72,000 range in recent sessions, with investors cautious ahead of key U.S. jobs and inflation readings later this week, Investing.com reported. 2
Not everyone is backing away. Shana Orczyk Sissel, founder and CEO of Banríon Capital Management, said she “would certainly be buying on weakness” because she sees “long-term upside in the crypto space.” 3
Some crypto-focused firms say bigger holders are stepping in, at least selectively. Akshat Siddhant, lead quant analyst at Mudrex, said bitcoin was “holding strong” as large holders known as “whales” and institutions bought the dip; he said big holders had accumulated more than 40,000 bitcoins since Friday, and noted Strategy added 1,142 bitcoins worth about $90 million. Vikram Subburaj, CEO of Giottus, said the drop had “flushed out leveraged positioning” and pushed sentiment into “risk-off” mode — when investors pull back from riskier assets. 4
Still, the downside case is straightforward: if risk appetite sours again, bitcoin can move quickly in both directions, and sharp swings have been the rule rather than the exception. Ed Engel, an analyst at Compass Point, flagged the risk of a retest toward $60,000 in a note cited by Barron’s. 5
Traders now look to U.S. employment data for January due on February 11 and the consumer price index for January due on February 13, both scheduled for 8:30 a.m. ET, as the next potential catalysts for rates and risk assets, according to the Labor Department’s release calendar. 6
