Crypto Slides Sharply as Regulation and Macro Headwinds Rattle Risk Appetite
Bitcoin traded around $61,885, Ethereum fell 18% over the past seven days, and XRP hovered near $1.12—price action that made early June look disorderly on the surface. Avinash Shekhar, cofounder and CEO of India-based crypto futures platform Pi42, argues the move was less a breakdown than a reset.
"The first week of June was defined by one of the sharpest corrections the crypto market has witnessed this year," Shekhar said in an exclusive interview. "But the underlying story was a momentum reset and capital rotation rather than a fundamental breakdown of the digital asset ecosystem."
Bitcoin slid from the $72,000 area to the $61,000 zone, pulling total crypto market capitalization down to about $2.13 trillion as most major tokens dropped more than 16%. Liquidations underscored the speed of the unwind: more than $1 billion in leveraged positions was wiped out at the peak over a 48-hour stretch.
Shekhar attributed the selloff to a mix of geopolitical uncertainty, heavy ETF outflows—13 straight days of net redemptions—and a broader pivot away from risk assets. In his view, none of those factors signal a structural break in the sector's long-term trajectory.
He also pointed to a quieter shift: where capital rotated inside crypto rather than simply exiting. Shekhar said flows have moved toward tokenization, stablecoins, blockchain infrastructure and corporate treasury adoption, suggesting longer-term institutional interest remains present even as large-cap tokens sold off.
Shekhar added that crypto is increasingly trading as a macro-sensitive asset. He cited rising co-movement with broader markets as investors respond to liquidity expectations, geopolitics and economic data. A stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs report last Friday, continued Middle East tensions and the Federal Reserve's signaling ahead of its June 16-17 meeting all fed into this week's drawdown. He described Bitcoin's roughly 80% correlation with the S&P 500 as "the new normal."
Looking ahead, Shekhar highlighted four developments to watch:
1) The U.S. CLARITY Act, which is now formally on the Senate Legislative Calendar after clearing the Senate Banking Committee in May with a bipartisan vote. If passed, it would set clearer legal boundaries for digital assets.
2) Bitcoin ETF flow trends. After 13 consecutive days of outflows totaling about $4.33 billion, a return to net inflows would be a key sign of renewed institutional demand.
3) Network-level momentum, particularly on Solana. Despite a 21% drop this week, Shekhar said developer and user activity at the protocol level remains strong.
4) The Federal Reserve. What Chair Jerome Powell signals at the June meeting is expected to shape the broader risk-asset backdrop through the summer.
Shekhar said volatility can function as a reset rather than a terminal event. "While periods of volatility can test investor conviction, they also serve as a reset mechanism that allows markets to reassess and refocus on long-term fundamentals," he said, pointing to adoption, regulatory clarity, institutional engagement and expanding real-world blockchain use cases as the core indicators to track.
Tags: Bitcoin, Crypto news
