Author: Marcel Pechman, CoinTelegraph; Translated by: Tao Zhu, Golden Finance

Between March 28 and March 31, the price of BTC fell from $87,241 to $81,331, erasing the gains in the previous 17 days. The 6.8% pullback liquidated the $230 million bullish BTC futures position and largely followed the decline in U.S. stocks as the S&P 500 futures fell to its lowest level since March 14.

While efforts to maintain above $82,000 on March 31, four key indicators indicate strong investor confidence and there are signs that Bitcoin may be decoupled from traditional markets in the near future.

S&P 500 Index Futures (left) vs. Bitcoin/USD (right). Source: TradingView / Cointelegraph

Traders are concerned about the impact of the global trade war on economic growth, especially after the U.S. announced a 25% tariff on foreign-made cars on March 26. Goldman Sachs strategists cut the company's target for the year-end S&P 500 from 6,200 to 5,700, according to Yahoo News. Similarly, Barclays analysts have lowered their forecast from 6,600 to 5,900.

Whatever the reason for the increased risk awareness among investors, gold soared to a record high above $3,100 on March 31. The $21 trillion asset is widely regarded as the ultimate hedging tool, especially when traders prioritize alternatives over cash. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar weakened against a basket of foreign currencies, with the U.S. dollar index falling from 107.60 in February to 104.10.

Although Bitcoin has risen 36% in 6 months, while the S&P 500 has fallen 3.5% over the same period, the claims of Bitcoin as "digital gold" and "unrelated assets" are still questioned. Several indicators of Bitcoin continue to show strength, indicating that long-term investors are not upset by the temporary correlation as central banks turn to expansion measures to prevent economic crises.

Bitcoin's mining hash rate (measures the computing power behind network block verification mechanisms) hit an all-time high.

Bitcoin mining 7-day average hash rate estimate, TH/s. Source: Blockchain.com

March 28, 7The day hash rate peaked at 856.2 million TB/s, up from 798.8 million TB/s in February. Therefore, from the known entities flowing into the exchange, miners have shown no signs of panic selling.

In the past, the decline in BTC prices was linked to the FUD period of the “death spiral”, where miners were forced to sell when they were unprofitable. Additionally, on March 30, miners’ average net transfers to the exchange were 125 BTC, which was much lower than the 450 BTC mined per day, according to Glassnode.

Bitcoin 7-day miner net transfer average, BTC. Source: Glassnode

Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings filed a prospectus on March 28 with plans to sell up to $2 billion in stock to expand its BTC reserves and use them for “general corporate purposes.” Earlier, the U.S.-listed video game company GameStop (GME), submitted a $1.3 billion convertible bond issuance plan on March 26, while updating its reserve investment strategy to include potential Bitcoin and stablecoin acquisitions.

On March 30, cryptocurrency exchange reserves fell to their lowest level in six years, reaching 2.64 million BTC, according to Glassnode. A decrease in the number of tokens that can be traded immediately usually indicates that investors are more inclined to hold, which is particularly important when Bitcoin prices fall by 5.1% in 7 days.

Lastly, the net outflow of U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) was close to zero between March 27 and March 28, indicating confidence from institutional investors.

In short, Bitcoin investors remain confident due to record high mining hash rates, corporate adoption and the lowest exchange reserves in 6 years, suggesting long-term holdings.