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. 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. The declines reflect profit-taking after recent highs, rising Treasury yields, and broader macro caution amid geopolitical headlines, according to Nick Ruck, director of LVRG Research. Asian equities opened lower on Thursday as the U.S. and Iran launched new strikes, testing the fragile ceasefire between the two nations.
BlackRock IBIT Records Second-Largest Outflow Since Launch
BlackRock's IBIT logged a net outflow of $527.8 million on Wednesday, 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 on Wednesday.
Dominick John, analyst at Zeus Research, told The Block 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.
Analyst Views on Market Decline
Dominick John 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. John said that the outflows were driven by the unwind of basis trades and institutional de-risking.
Peter Chung, head of research at Presto Research, told The Block that Bitcoin has been displaying a "peculiar trading pattern" since mid-May. "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."
Ruck 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."
Broader Crypto Market Performance
Ether (ETH) dipped 4.8% to $1,974 as of 1:50 a.m. Thursday, XRP lost 3.5%, and Solana declined 3.6%. Asian equities opened lower on Thursday, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index falling 1.9% and Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 1.25%, with markets still open.
