Bitcoin slipped back below $67,000 on Thursday after a strong Wednesday session that saw the crypto gain more than 6%.
The pullback came as Wall Street turned lower, with Nvidia’s strong earnings failing to lift tech stocks. Risk-off sentiment spread to speculative assets, including crypto.
Bitcoin was trading around $66,900 at the time of writing, down roughly 1.6% on the day according to TradingView.
Wednesday’s gains were driven largely by bargain buying following a near 50% drop from Bitcoin’s October all-time high. Short sellers were also caught off guard, triggering a short squeeze.
Data from Coinglass showed $468.7 million in short positions liquidated in a 24-hour window.
Despite the price dip on Thursday, institutional buying picked up sharply. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $506.51 million in net inflows on February 25, the highest single-day figure in two weeks, according to SoSoValue.
BlackRock’s IBIT led all funds with $297.37 million in net inflows. Fidelity’s FBTC added $30.09 million, while Grayscale’s GBTC brought in $102.49 million. Bitwise’s BITB posted $39.37 million.
BlackRock keeps adding more $BTC.
In the past hour, #BlackRock received 4,309 $BTC($289.6M).https://t.co/qmuDIrPHc6 pic.twitter.com/ijZHrjhHrA
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) February 26, 2026
BlackRock also made a large direct purchase on February 26, buying around 4,309 BTC worth approximately $289.6 million within a single hour. The transfers moved from Coinbase Prime hot wallets to IBIT wallets.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted the demand was timely after weeks of continuous outflows, but said it remains unclear whether this marks the start of a sustained recovery or a short-term rebound.
Half a bil into bitcoin ETFs yesterday, biggest day in a while, +$750m over past two days, right as obituaries were being published. They needed it too, like a hitter in a slump going yard. YTD is now under $2b in outflows. Unclear still tho if this is legit start to rebound or… pic.twitter.com/hl6JQuFcyI
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) February 26, 2026
Julio Moreno of CryptoQuant said on X: “Bitcoin spot demand is growing for the first time since late November.”
Crypto analytics platform Santiment flagged that there were 19,993 unique wallets holding 100 BTC or more as of Thursday, just seven short of the 20,000 milestone.
Bitcoin is about to hit a milestone, surpassing 20,000 wallets with at least 100 $BTC. A wallet with 100 or more Bitcoin is currently worth a minimum of $6.78M, and they're obviously going to be largely owned from very high net worth individuals, funds, long term holders, or… pic.twitter.com/ayzB0fmguC
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) February 26, 2026
Santiment described the trend as a sign of “less extreme consolidation,” suggesting Bitcoin is being distributed across more large holders rather than being concentrated among a small group.
However, Santiment also noted the overall percentage of supply held by this group hasn’t changed, implying some long-term holders are still selling. “This is why prices have stayed suppressed,” the firm said.
On-chain analytics firm Glassnode said profit-taking has stalled every recovery attempt below $70,000 since the start of February.
The Coinmarketcap fear and greed index remained at “extreme fear” as of Thursday, unchanged from earlier in the week.
Bitcoin is down approximately 24.59% over the past 30 days and around 47% from its October all-time high.
The post Bitcoin (BTC) Price: BlackRock Buys $289M as ETF Inflows Hit Two-Week High appeared first on CoinCentral.
