Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $73,000 early Thursday as spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds logged their largest net outflows since late January.
The world's largest cryptocurrency slipped 3.6% over the past 24 hours to $72,842 as of 1:50 a.m., according to The Block's price page. Ether (ETH) dipped 4.8% to $1,974, XRP lost 3.5%, and Solana declined 3.6%.
"The sharp declines reflect a risk-off move driven by profit-taking after recent highs, rising Treasury yields, and broader macro caution amid geopolitical headlines," said Nick Ruck, director of LVRG Research.
Dominick John, analyst at Zeus Research, told The Block that the crypto market decline was mainly due to capital rotating into TradFi equities, alongside heavy derivatives liquidations that pushed prices further down once key BTC and ETH levels broke.
"Broader macro and geopolitical uncertainty also kept traders defensive, limiting dip-buying demand," John added.
Bitcoin has been displaying a "peculiar trading pattern" since mid-May, Peter Chung, head of research at Presto Research, told The Block.
"After hovering over $80,000 early in the month, it has drifted lower over the past two weeks, underperforming risk assets like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq," Chung said. "This weakness appears largely driven by spot Bitcoin ETF outflows, with weekly redemptions reaching levels last seen during the October '25 and February '26 drawdowns."
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Spot bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. recorded $733.4 million in net outflows on Wednesday, marking their largest daily outflows since Jan. 29, according to SoSoValue data.
Notably, BlackRock's IBIT logged a net outflow of $527.8 million, its second-largest outflow since inception. Grayscale's GBTC posted $104.8 million in net outflows, while four other ETFs from Grayscale, Fidelity, Bitwise, and Ark & 21Shares also recorded negative flows.
Morgan Stanley's MSBT was the only spot bitcoin ETF to post positive flows, drawing in $4.3 million yesterday.
John said that the outflows were driven by the unwind of basis trades and institutional de-risking. He added that IBIT's outflows on Wednesday were affected by the large block trade that occurred a day prior.
Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas flagged Tuesday that there was a bulk trade of 29.2 million IBIT shares worth $1.3 billion, which helped lift Tuesday's total bitcoin ETF volume to $4.4 billion — the highest level since April 17.
Ruck also noted that traders are monitoring the ETF flow momentum and support levels around $70,000 for bitcoin, as "sustained outflows could signal further institutional repositioning away from crypto."
Asian equities opened lower on Thursday, as the U.S. and Iran launched new strikes, testing the fragile ceasefire between the two nations. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 1.9% so far today, while Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.25%, with markets still open.
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