Bitcoin has recovered to the $71,000 range, but bearish sentiment is still strong. With about a 1.7% drop over the past 24 hours, Ether is hovering around the $2,200 area. Looking at the derivatives market, you can see that the funding rate has fallen into negative territory, and deleveraging of long positions is continuing.

What I’m focusing on is the liquidation data. The total liquidation amount over 24 hours has reached nearly $300 million, with the ratio of longs to shorts at 77 to 23. On Binance’s liquidation heatmap, around $66,100 is functioning as a key liquidation level. The options market is also defensive: the 1-week 25-delta skew has risen to 23%, suggesting a balance between bargain-hunting buys aimed at the bottom and protective positioning.

When looking at the volatility structure oscillating between contango and backwardation, the market is valuing short-term protection highly while seeking stability over the long term. Gold is up 0.9%, and silver is up by more than 5%, which may reflect risk-averse sentiment.

As a positive development, Spark has rolled out a new product for institutional investors through on-chain capital allocation. It moves off-chain custody assets into the DeFi market, managing more than $9 billion in stablecoin liquidity. The SPK token is also showing performance that outpaces the broader market, making it interesting to see this kind of groundwork for institutions being advanced. Overall, it’s a correction phase, but you can also see glimpses of institutional activity trying to target the bottom.