Analyst Darkfost, writing on CryptoQuant, suggests that oil prices exceeding $100 per barrel create unfavorable conditions for Bitcoin capital inflows. High energy costs drive inflation and economic slowdown, which limits market liquidity. Historically, sustained Brent price increases above annual averages have often coincided with sluggish Bitcoin performance.
Despite these macroeconomic headwinds, Axel Adler Jr. reports a cooling of market sentiment without a major sell-off. The Bitcoin Unified Sentiment indicator dropped from a peak of 83 on August 26 to 45. Additionally, the Fear & Greed index fell from 71 to 51, while bullish sentiment on CoinGecko decreased from 78% to 72%.
Institutional flows show mixed results. Bitcoin-based ETFs attracted $442 million in net inflows during the week of October 19–23, ending a two-week streak of outflows. Conversely, Ethereum-based ETFs recorded outflows of $224 million, marking a fourth consecutive week of negative performance for the product.
