Bloodbath! $BTC In Q2, the market crashed 11%—over 8.3 billion long positions were liquidated, but the money was stolen by AI and on-chain?

As the second quarter closes, you open your account and see that $BTC is still hovering around $60k, having lost half its value from the year's high of $126k.

The S&P 500 rose 16% over the same period, and the Nasdaq 100 surged 28%. Where did the money go? Market insiders give three words: AI, on-chain.

Let's look at the overall picture: $BTC fell 11% in Q2, $ETH dropped 20%, and $SOL fell 13%. The quarter started well, with geopolitical easing and institutional demand pushing $BTC back to $82k. But Brent crude oil surged to $126 due to negotiation volatility, the Fed turned hawkish, capital began rotating into AI stocks, and crypto instantly lost momentum.

May saw divergence: the stock market hit new highs while crypto reversed downward. By the end of June, $BTC was only at $60k, a 52% drawdown from its all-time high. Altcoins fared worse. Among the top 20 coins by market cap, only Hyperliquid ($HYPE) gained 142%, riding on its unique on-chain perpetual contract trading.

The core problem lies in the simultaneous narrowing of the three major demand channels: spot ETFs, Strategy, and stablecoins.

Spot ETFs were still booming in April, with a single-day inflow of up to $474 million, but the trend completely reversed starting in May. In Q2, there were 53 days of net outflows and only 30 days of net inflows. In June alone, $3.84 billion flowed out, accounting for the vast majority of the $4.08 billion outflow in the entire quarter.

Strategy's moves are even more worrying. It previously bought $BTC by issuing preferred shares (STRC), but STRC fell to an all-time low of $74, compressing its net asset value ratio to around 1.0 and blocking its financing channels. In early June, it unexpectedly sold 32 $BTC, directly shattering the market's belief of "never selling." It then urgently adjusted: raising the STRC dividend to 12%, authorizing the sale of up to $1.25 billion worth of $BTC, and setting up a $2.55 billion dollar reserve (covering about 17 months of debt).

Total stablecoin market cap shrank by $4.2 billion. USDT increased slightly by $1.8 billion, but USDC fell by $3.4 billion, and Ethena's USDe dropped by $1.4 billion—risk aversion made yield-generating strategies unattractive.

With the three major water sources drying up, liquidity is much tighter than at the start of the year. Will this money return, or will it continue to flow into AI stocks?

Exchange data is even more stark: spot trading volume fell 28% QoQ to $2.32 trillion, futures fell 11.6% to $12.32 trillion, but the spot/futures ratio compressed from 0.23 to 0.19, indicating that derivative positions increased while real buying demand didn't keep up. Hyperliquid captured about 4.5% of the futures market share, with on-chain perpetual contracts eroding CEXs.

Open interest peaks: $BTC $49.2 billion, $ETH $27.2 billion. Now they have fallen to $33.5 billion and $16.2 billion, declines of 32% and 40% respectively. Total long liquidations in Q2 reached $8.35 billion, half of which occurred during the wave of liquidations from May 25 to June 7.

Funding rates flipped from an annualized -16% in April to +10% in May, then returned to near zero by the end of June—markets have become cautious after deleveraging.

Order book depth has also deteriorated: $BTC 's 2% depth liquidity dropped from about $70 million in early May to $35-40 million by the end of June, making it easy to slip on any disturbance.

Looking ahead, several structural changes are worth watching:

• Tokenized stocks: Coinbase launching 1:1 pegged legal token stocks.

• RWA perpetual contracts: Hyperliquid's HIP-3 has expanded on-chain trading to stocks, indices, and commodities.

• SpaceX IPO priced on-chain: The $1.7 trillion company has had its price signaled by the crypto market before going public.

• On-chain treasuries: Lending strategies on Morpho and Aave are becoming core layers for institutional allocation, with traditional asset managers like Bitwise already entering.

In one sentence: Q2's decline was not accidental; it was due to the simultaneous stalling of the three liquidity engines. Whether Q3 can recover depends on whether this money is willing to return.

Follow me: Get more real-time analysis and insights on the crypto market! $BTC $ETH $SOL

#Gate股票转仓功能上线 # Strategy plans to repurchase shares #PredictWorldCup England vs Congo