$BTC Hits $65K Ceiling, Hedge Funds Hit Tech Stocks at Record Pace 🚧

Bitcoin ($BTC) made several unsuccessful attempts to break and hold the $65,000 level on Monday, with the price point acting as a repeating barrier to upside momentum. According to data from TradingView, volatility around $BTC/USD returned near the Wall Street open, capping gains that traders had hoped would push the asset closer to $70,000. "The $65K level has capped price for the entirety of July so far," trader Daan Crypto Trades wrote on X, adding, "But I do think the longer price spends here, the more likely the $65K level is to break. Especially with the higher lows being made over the past 3 weeks."

US equities faced pressure from the ongoing US-Iran conflict and an accelerating institutional tech-stock sell-off. Trading resource The Kobeissi Letter reported that hedge funds were selling information technology stocks at "a record pace." "Hedge funds have sold information technology stocks in 6 of the last 8 weeks. This brings total 8-week sales to the largest in at least 10 years," The Kobeissi Letter said on X, citing Goldman Sachs data. At the time of writing, the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Composite Index were modestly higher, while the Dow Jones was down 0.3% on the day. Oil prices remained above $80 per barrel as the Strait of Hormuz was set to stay closed amid intensifying rhetoric from the US and Iran. US president Donald Trump called over the weekend for Iran to be included in a sanctions package initially focused on Russia, according to a post on Truth Social.

Several market participants pointed to levels just above $67,000 as the next likely upside target for $BTC. Daan Crypto Trades said that zone was where $BTC/USD would "break into a bullish market structure." Crypto trader and analyst Michael van de Poppe, addressing his roughly 819,000 X followers, framed current conditions as a seasonal pause. "The markets are in a summer break, it feels like," van de Poppe said while discussing Ether ($ETH). In a separate post, van de Poppe set a $BTC price target of $67,500 to $69,000 for the "coming weeks," and previously pointed to August offering even higher levels up to $80,000, a price last seen in mid-May.