Bitcoin rebounds after Strategy BTC sale as funding rates climb to 9%

Bitcoin’s rebound gathered speed after a sharp dip tied to Strategy’s announced Bitcoin sales, with price quickly recovering from the $61,300 area to around $63,500. The move came despite a noticeable shift in leverage indicators, suggesting that while traders remained cautious, demand for exposure wasn’t completely broken.

Derivatives data showed a mixed picture: perpetual futures funding rates climbed to a positive level, while options pricing reflected only mild stress. At the same time, US spot Bitcoin ETF flows showed a potentially important counter-signal—net inflows after a streak of outflows—raising the odds that any bounce could find support beyond short-term trading.

Key takeaways

• Perpetual futures funding rates rose to around 9% annualized on Monday, indicating leverage demand was more balanced than during the prior negative-funding period.
• Deribit’s put-to-call premium ratio moved to roughly 1.15, a level below typical stress thresholds (often above 2), pointing to contained—not escalating—options anxiety.
• US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $223 million in net inflows on Friday (the first after 10 straight outflow days), countering sentiment hit by June’s record outflows.
• On-chain data highlighted sellers’ exhaustion near the $60,000 support zone, though derivatives traders may still wait for repeated ETF inflow confirmation before pressing higher targets.

Selloff fades as leverage metrics stabilize

After Strategy’s Bitcoin sale announcement, Bitcoin dipped to approximately $61,300 and then moved swiftly back upward. The rapid recovery mattered for two reasons: it suggested the market absorbed supply without triggering a prolonged cascading liquidation wave, and it highlighted that trader positioning did not fully align with a “bear-control” narrative.

Perpetual futures provide one of the clearest near-term gauges of leveraged sentiment. According to Laevitas funding data, the Bitcoin perpetual futures annualized funding rate jumped to 9% on Monday. Positive funding generally implies that traders using perpetuals are paying for long exposure—often seen when the market is no longer dominated by bearish leverage.

Importantly, this change moved the indicator away from the bearish momentum seen on Saturday, when funding rates were negative. While 9% annualized doesn’t automatically signal strong bullish conviction on its own, the shift does indicate that the balance between long and short leverage tightened rather than deteriorated.

Options offered a second, slightly different read on risk. Laevitas data referenced through Deribit showed the put-to-call premium ratio at about 1.15 on Monday. This metric compares the relative pricing of downside-focused puts versus upside calls. The ratio had been lower in the previous days, but on Monday put premiums started to outweigh calls again—though only modestly.

Historically, periods of acute market stress often push this ratio above 2. With the indicator staying around 1.15, the implication is that while some participants were paying for downside protection, they were not pricing an immediate breakdown scenario.

ETF flows return after outflows—momentum traders may take notice

One of the strongest supporting signals for a sustained recovery is spot ETF flow behavior. Earlier coverage noted that US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $223 million in net inflows on Friday, according to reporting linked in the source. That day marked the first inflow after 10 consecutive outflow sessions, which had compounded bearish sentiment.

The broader context is crucial: the record-high $4.51 billion net outflows in June left traders bracing for continued selling pressure. In that environment, a single inflow day can be easy to dismiss—but repeated inflows tend to matter more for the market’s ability to hold higher levels without constant hedging demand.

The market’s reaction to derivatives positioning appears aligned with this framework. Even though funding and options stabilized, the bounce to roughly $63,500 did not immediately translate into “bullishness” strong enough to erase all caution among leverage traders. That pattern fits the idea that ETF buyers may need to show persistence before derivatives market participants fully commit to a higher-range outlook.

Strategy overhang: cash buffer versus unrealized loss pressure

The selloff pressure connected to Strategy’s Bitcoin sales remains a key variable for short-term sentiment. The source attributes part of the recent bearish tone to strain around Strategy preferred perpetual equity Stretch (STRC US), which had offered holders an attractive yield. It also notes that new stock issuance occurs only at a fixed $100 price, meaning the company may have fewer channels at times to support dividend-related expectations.

Even so, the article emphasizes that Strategy still holds enough cash to cover about 17 months of dividends. That detail complicates the “forced selling” storyline: if dividend coverage is secure for a meaningful period, investors must reassess how urgent additional Bitcoin sales truly are.

However, the same analysis points to why bears still have room to press the market. Strategy’s debt leverage is described as extremely low (around 8%), yet the company is facing approximately $8 billion in unrealized losses from prior Bitcoin purchases. In practice, unrealized drawdowns can still influence market psychology—particularly when investors connect Bitcoin exposure decisions to broader equity and preferred-structure stability.

That combination helps explain why derivatives traders may remain skeptical. For them, Strategy is not only a cashflow story; it’s also a persistent factor in how markets interpret the future supply of Bitcoin linked to corporate decisions.

On-chain seller exhaustion strengthens $60,000, but confirmation is still needed

Beyond derivatives and ETF flows, the source highlights on-chain evidence suggesting that selling pressure is not expanding. It references Glassnode data showing that transfers from long-term holders to exchanges have fallen to an average of 4,130 BTC per day. The figure is down from about 8,040 BTC per day one week prior.

This kind of decline matters because it often signals that long-term holders are less willing—or less able—to move coins toward exchanges. In the article’s framing, that seller exhaustion supports the $60,000 support level.

Yet the piece also cautions that on-chain stabilization alone may not be enough to sustain a large upside move. Unless spot Bitcoin ETFs begin a sequence of relevant net inflows, derivatives traders may keep risk management switched on—reducing the likelihood of a sustained rally above $65,000.

In other words, the market may be able to bounce due to reduced exchange-bound supply, but it still needs buy-side confirmation from spot demand channels to convert a rebound into a durable trend.

For now, investors should watch two things closely: whether ETF inflows become a multi-day pattern rather than a one-off turn, and whether derivatives stress indicators—funding and options pricing—continue to ease as price holds the $60,000 area.