Bitcoin’s attempt to reclaim $70,000 earlier in the week lasted about 48 hours.

The largest cryptocurrency slid to $65,735 in early Asian hours on Saturday, down 3% over the past day and 2.8% on the week. Wednesday’s rally, which came within touching distance of $70,000, has now given back more than half its gains as broader risk sentiment deteriorated through Thursday and Friday’s U.S. sessions.

Altcoins took a harder hit. Solana dropped 6.7%, ether fell 6.2%, dogecoin shed 5.1%, and XRP lost 4%. The losses pushed most major tokens into the red on a weekly basis, erasing the altcoin outperformance that had been the week’s most encouraging signal. BNB held up better than most, down just 2.5%.

The trigger was familiar. Friday’s U.S. session saw the S&P 500 close down 0.4%, the Nasdaq 100 drop 0.3%, and the Dow fall 1.1%. Nvidia, still digesting its post-earnings reaction, shed another 4.2%.

A hotter-than-expected 0.5% jump in producer prices added fuel, signaling inflationary pressure that may keep the Fed from cutting rates anytime soon. Block Inc.’s massive layoffs fanned broader anxiety that AI is starting to displace jobs across the economy rather than just creating them.

Crypto followed equities lower, but as usual, with amplified magnitude. A 0.4% drop in the S&P became a 3% drop in bitcoin and a more than 6% drop in altcoins. The leverage that re-entered the system during Wednesday’s rally got flushed on the way back down.

The irony is that the institutional flow data this week was actually strong.

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs added $1.1 billion in three days, putting them on pace for their best week in months. But ETF inflows haven’t been enough to overcome the broader macro headwinds.

“Over-analysis of short-term price movements is misguided,” said Dom Harz, co-founder of bitcoin finance firm BOB said in an email. “Bitcoin’s volatility is no surprise, particularly for early investors who have experienced previous cycles. What’s different this time is the type of capital behind the emerging asset class.”

Meanwhile, CryptoQuant data shows USDT stablecoin reserves on exchanges have fallen from $60 billion to $51.1 billion over the past two months, a decline the firm warned could trigger a “massive sell-off” if reserves drop below $50 billion.

Elsewhere, Strategy shares topped the list of large U.S. companies by short interest volume as markets increasingly question the sustainability of the firm’s debt-funded bitcoin buying program.

And on the Ethereum side, large holders have started selling at a loss, with DAT company ETHZilla officially abandoning its ETH accumulation strategy and rebranding to focus on tokenized real-world assets instead.

Bitcoin is now back in the middle of the $60,000-$70,000 range it has been stuck in since the Feb. 5 crash. Wednesday proved the top of that range is resistance. The question heading into March is whether the bottom still holds.

MetaMask and Mastercard have officially launched the MetaMask Card across the United States, marking a significant step in bringing cryptocurrency spending into everyday commerce.

New MetaMask and Mastercard card lets users spend crypto

The announcement follows successful pilot programs in Europe and the UK, and now brings the self-custodial crypto payment card to 49 U.S. states, including New York for the first time.

Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds pulled in more than $1 billion of net inflows over three trading sessions this week, a reversal that came even as Bitcoin remained well below its peak.

The US-listed spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs logged a combined $1.02 billion in inflows from Tuesday to Thursday, according to data from SoSoValue. The funds pulled in $506.51 million on Wednesday, the largest single-day total during the three days.

On Friday, ETF analyst Nate Geraci said in a post on X that investors appeared to be “buying the dip” amid the recent downturn.

He said spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen about $6.5 billion in outflows since Bitcoin’s record high in early October, a figure he described as modest relative to the $55 billion the category has absorbed since January 2024.

Related: Bitcoin’s 100 BTC club edges toward 20K wallets in a ‘bullish sign’

“50% drawdowns are walk in the park for long-time BTC investors,” Geraci wrote. “But appears newer ETF investors aren’t worried either.”

Flows reverse multi-week outflow streak

This week’s inflows follow five consecutive weeks of net withdrawals, with the last two weeks of January recording a combined $2.82 billion in outflows.

The rebound was led by BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which logged $275.82 million in net inflows on Thursday alone. Fidelity’s FBTC and Ark 21Shares’ ARKB posted outflows, but were outweighed by gains in other funds including Bitwise’s BITB and Grayscale’s BTC.

Altcoin ETFs have also turned positive in recent trading sessions. Spot Ether (ETH) ETFs added about $173 million over the same three-day period, while Solana funds logged roughly $35 million in inflows. Meanwhile, XRP (XRP) ETFs logged a modest $7 million in inflows. 

Related: Bitcoin bear market not over as BTC fails to reclaim $68K trend line

Analysts flag ETF flows as sentiment gauge

The inflows come as market participants discuss whether the recent selling pressure is easing. On Friday, several analysts said Bitcoin’s roughly 50% drawdown may be approaching exhaustion. 

CoinEx chief analyst Jeff Ko previously told Cointelegraph that improvements in spot ETF inflows suggest aggressive selling pressure may be fading. However, he said a sudden V-shaped recovery is unlikely after a steep decline. 

Bitrue research lead Andri Fauzan Adziima similarly pointed to oversold technical indicators and said sustained ETF inflows could serve as a catalyst for stabilization.