Bitcoin Rebounds to $76,000 After ETF Outflows and Tech Sell-Off
Spot bitcoin ETFs saw another sharp wave of outflows, with Fidelity and BlackRock leading the exits. At the same time, the Nasdaq drop weighed on risk sentiment and many leveraged positions were liquidated.
Key Takeaways
- Bitcoin recovered to $76,000 on Friday after the price fell below that level on Thursday during U.S. trading.
- Spot bitcoin ETFs posted $430.2 million in net outflows on Thursday, with Fidelity’s FBTC the biggest outflow.
- The drop came alongside a tech sell-off and $1.26 billion in liquidated crypto positions, mostly long positions.
Bitcoin returned to $76,000 (€67,700) on Friday after the price fell below that level during U.S. trading on Thursday. That mostly erased Wednesday’s rebound, while investors pulled money out of spot bitcoin ETFs and a sell-off in tech stocks weighed on risk sentiment.
ETF Outflows Continue
U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETFs saw $430.2 million (€383 million) in net outflows on Thursday. Fidelity’s FBTC was the biggest outflow at $199.9 million (€178 million), followed by BlackRock’s IBIT with $105 million (€93.5 million), according to SoSoValue data. That reversed Wednesday’s $74.6 million (€66.5 million) in inflows, and net redemptions for this week through Thursday climbed to $869.8 million (€775 million).
That move fits into a broader pullback in the crypto market. The CoinDesk 20 index lost 6.28% over the same period, while Bitcoin itself fell more than 5.3% in 24 hours before climbing back above $76,000 (€67,700).
Tech Sell-Off Hits Crypto
The pullback came alongside a 5.5% drop in the Nasdaq and a 4.3% drop in the S&P 500 on Thursday. Analysts at FalconX and GSR linked that weakness to concerns that the Democratic majority in Congress could slow the rollout of AI data centers and other infrastructure projects. For crypto traders, that matters because stocks and crypto often move with the same risk sentiment on days like these.
Forced selling also played a role. Over the past 24 hours, $1.26 billion (€1.1 billion) in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated, of which $1.12 billion (€1 billion) were long positions, according to CoinGlass. That suggests the drop was driven not just by ETF flows, but also by a broader unwind of leveraged bets.
What This Means for Investors
For European crypto investors, this move shows how closely Bitcoin still tracks U.S. stocks and institutional money flows. Spot bitcoin ETFs in particular have become an important link between the crypto market and the traditional market, which means big inflows or outflows show up quickly in the price. The combination of ETF flows, tech weakness, and liquidations makes the market extra sensitive to sudden shocks. Earlier inflows into spot ETFs also showed how quickly those money flows can flip sentiment around Bitcoin.