Bitcoin holds $74,000 as ETF outflows hit fourth day
Bitcoin steadied near $74,000 on Wednesday, 11 November, even as US spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded a fourth consecutive day of outflows, with investors pulling $95 million from the funds on Tuesday.
The largest cryptocurrency was trading at about $74,439, according to CoinDesk, after dipping to $72,700 on Tuesday. It later traded at $74,213 at 17:04 GMT, up 0.7% from the day's opening level of $73,699, according to Kraken data cited by Invezz. Ether held near $2,050, trading at $2,077, up 1.3% on the day.
The outflows, measured by data providers SoSoValue and Farside Investors, extended a four-session run of withdrawals that began on 5 November and now totals about $1.14 billion. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust accounted for $78 million of Tuesday's redemptions, its eighth straight session of withdrawals, while Fidelity's FBTC lost $36.8 million. Morgan Stanley's MSBT took in $20 million, partly offsetting the selling.
The steady price despite the outflows suggests the selling is being absorbed for now, but traders remain cautious. Crypto futures liquidations surged 288% to $725 million in the 24 hours around Tuesday's inflation data, according to CoinGlass, as leveraged positions were flushed out. In the options market, put contracts dominate: eight of the ten most active Deribit bitcoin contracts expiring between 12 and 27 November are puts, with strikes from $69,000 to $74,000.
Other major tokens recovered some of Tuesday's losses. XRP traded at $1.072, up 1.6%, Solana rose 2.1% to $84.95, and Dogecoin gained 1.6% to $0.06905. Over 24 hours, CoinGecko data showed gains of about 1.8% for bitcoin, 2.7% for ether, 2.2% for XRP and 3.4% for Solana.
Bitcoin's muted response stood in contrast to stock markets, where the Nasdaq jumped 1.6% on Wednesday after strong results from AI cloud provider CoreWeave. The divergence underlines how the crypto market is still weighed down by Tuesday's inflation report, which showed US consumer prices rising 0.4% in October, more than the 0.3% economists expected.
That reading has traders pricing in a 90% chance that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at its 8-9 December meeting, according to CME FedWatch. Higher rates tend to weigh on bitcoin, which pays no yield and is sensitive to the cost of holding speculative assets. Bitcoin remains below Monday's close of $75,223, and the $75,000 level stands as nearby resistance.
Ether funds saw only a small $1.3 million of net outflows on Tuesday, after $184.6 million left on Monday. US producer price data is due on Friday, the next scheduled test for the market.
