Bitcoin Rebounds Near $61K as Strategy Sale, ETF Outflows, and Morgan Stanley Galaxy Deal Reshape Markets

Bitcoin clawed back above $61,000 over the weekend after plunging to its lowest levels of 2026, as a brutal convergence of macro pressures, institutional selling, and geopolitical tension hammered crypto markets. The cryptocurrency had fallen from above $80,000 to below $62,000 over a matter of weeks, driven by a hawkish Federal Reserve pricing in zero rate cuts for 2026, renewed U.S.-Iran military strikes, and Strategy's first Bitcoin sale in nearly four years. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded 13 consecutive days of outflows totaling roughly $4.4 billion, dropping total category assets from $104.29 billion to about $80.40 billion, according to Cryptopolitan.

The Fear and Greed Index crashed to 11 during the selloff, its lowest reading in years, while Bitcoin's daily RSI briefly hit 15.5, signaling oversold conditions not seen since the COVID crash of March 2020. Total crypto market capitalization fell roughly 48% from its peak, with Ethereum sinking near $1,500 and SOL dropping to $61.45. JPMorgan warned that even Strategy's small sale of 32 BTC was enough to heighten market anxiety and contract liquidity in an already fragile environment.

Morgan Stanley and Galaxy Open New Institutional Lending Path

Against the backdrop of the selloff, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management moved to deepen its crypto footprint. The bank announced on June 5 that eligible wealth management clients can now lend Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Solana to Galaxy Digital and receive shares of spot crypto exchange-traded products in return, including the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust. Galaxy lowered its minimum transaction size for referred clients from $25 million to $5 million, and the firms said in-kind ETP onboarding times could fall by up to 75%. Once deposited into a client's brokerage account, the ETP shares carry margin and lending functionality, allowing investors to use them as collateral within traditional portfolios without first selling their digital assets.

Citi's June 2026 tokenization report put global tokenized assets at roughly $17 billion today, with a bull-case 2030 forecast of $8.2 trillion, underscoring the long-term runway for structures like the one Morgan Stanley and Galaxy are assembling. Vietnam also made regulatory headlines on June 8, mandating that all domestic cryptocurrency trading, including Bitcoin and stablecoins, must be settled in Vietnamese dong as part of a move to integrate crypto into the national economy. The combination of a deepening market selloff, tightening global regulation, and expanding institutional infrastructure signals that the current cycle is reshaping the crypto landscape on multiple fronts simultaneously.