Bitcoin (BTC) fell to around $71,000 after U.S. stock markets opened on Thursday, November 12. By 10:55 a.m. ET, Bitcoin was trading just above $71,000, down 3.4% over the previous 24 hours. It was the cryptocurrency’s lowest price in nearly three months.
Bitcoin falls more than 18% from its September peak
Bitcoin reached an eight-month high of $87,315 in September. Thursday’s decline brought its losses since that peak to more than $16,000, a drop of over 18% in less than two months.
The sell-off accelerated as the U.S. trading day began. Bitcoin traded at $73,370 around 6:30 a.m. ET and had fallen to $71,300 by 10 a.m., half an hour after U.S. stock markets opened. At that point, Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL) and XRP were also down about 3% over the previous 24 hours.
Bitcoin had already given up a sizable portion of its gains heading into the week. On Sunday, BTC closed below its 50-week moving average of roughly $75,500 after seven consecutive weeks above it. In the 24 hours leading up to Monday morning, crypto exchanges liquidated $1.04 billion in leveraged long positions.
Markets price in a December Fed rate hike
U.S. inflation data added to concerns about interest rates earlier in the week. Figures released on Tuesday showed that consumer prices rose 0.4% in October from the previous month, above the 0.3% increase economists had expected. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, also exceeded forecasts at 0.3% for the month.
On Thursday, Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said price pressures were spreading across more categories. She called for tighter monetary policy and said she favored smaller, steady rate increases. The yield on the two-year U.S. Treasury rose to 4.80% during the session.
As Bitcoin approached $71,000, markets put the odds of a quarter-point rate hike at the Fed’s December 9 meeting at 94%. Around the same time, the 10-year Treasury yield climbed above 5%, and the U.S. Dollar Index rose above 103.
Bitcoin ETFs shed $1.44 billion in five trading days
U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded a fifth consecutive trading day of net outflows on Wednesday. Investors withdrew a net $299.9 million on November 11, according to SoSoValue, bringing total net outflows over the five sessions to approximately $1.44 billion.
BlackRock’s IBIT accounted for most of Wednesday’s withdrawals. Investors pulled nearly $270 million from the fund, extending its outflow streak to nine trading days. Grayscale’s GBTC recorded another $39 million in net outflows.
Morgan Stanley’s MSBT was the only one of the 12 spot Bitcoin ETFs to attract fresh money on Wednesday, taking in about $9 million. The other nine funds recorded no net flows. Despite the recent withdrawals, cumulative net inflows across U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs stood at roughly $55 billion since their January 2024 launch.
