New York, February 16, 2026, 05:33 (EST) — Market closed.
- Bitcoin slipped below $69,000; ether was also weaker.
- Holiday closures in the U.S. and parts of Asia kept liquidity thin.
- Traders are watching ETF flows and a run of U.S. data later this week.
Bitcoin price today slipped below $69,000 on Monday, extending a pullback from the $70,000 zone. The world’s biggest cryptocurrency was down 2.3% at $68,770 after touching $70,480 earlier and sliding to $68,094; ether fell 4% to $1,980.
The move came as Wall Street was shut for the U.S. Presidents Day holiday and several Asian markets were closed for Lunar New Year, conditions that can exaggerate swings. Bitcoin trades 24/7, but liquidity often tracks business hours in the United States and Europe. (Reuters)
Speculative appetite has been patchy. Investing.com said bitcoin has now posted four straight weeks of declines, and most major tokens were in the red again on Monday as traders stayed cautious on the rate outlook. (Investing.com)
A key variable has been the U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs — exchange-traded funds that hold bitcoin — because they concentrate daily buying and selling into the cash market. They recorded a $15.1 million net inflow on Friday after a $410.2 million outflow on Thursday, Farside Investors data showed. (farside.co.uk)
“The short-term structure appears fragile,” Riya Sehgal, a research analyst at Delta Exchange, wrote, pointing to declining ETF inflows since mid-January. She said failure to hold current support could set off “another wave of risk-off sentiment” across digital assets. (The Economic Times)
Corporate bitcoin holders are also back in view. Strategy said in a social media post that it can “withstand a drawdown” in bitcoin to $8,000 and still have enough assets to cover its debt. (X (formerly Twitter))
There are still pockets of buying in crypto-linked stocks. ARK Invest bought about $15 million of Coinbase shares on Friday across three of its ETFs, Cointelegraph reported, after Coinbase said a quarterly loss ended an eight-quarter stretch of profitability. (TradingView)
Macro is doing more of the steering than crypto-specific news. Two-year U.S. Treasury yields closed at their lowest since mid-2022 on Friday and futures implied about a 68% chance of a Fed cut in June; investors now look to Friday’s U.S. gross domestic product report and global manufacturing surveys for the next push. (Reuters)
There is also a run of Fed communication and inflation data this week. Minutes from the January Federal Open Market Committee meeting are due on Wednesday, and the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index — the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge — is scheduled for Friday, Kiplinger’s calendar showed. Barclays analyst Pooja Sriram wrote the recent run of subdued PCE prints is “likely to snap.” (Kiplinger)
But the read-through to bitcoin is messy: a hotter inflation print can lift bond yields and pressure high-beta assets, while cooler numbers can revive rate-cut bets and still trigger volatility as traders unwind leverage. Dessislava Laneva, a dispatch analyst at Nexo, said the market will be watching the PCE report for “any signs that inflation continues to drop.” (MEXC)
With U.S. markets reopening on Tuesday, February 17, traders will watch whether ETF flows return and whether bitcoin can hold the $68,000 area heading into Friday, February 20, when GDP and the PCE report are due.
