Crypto markets faced their most severe reversal in months as U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs flipped from short-lived inflows to near-record redemptions. After taking in 75.4 million dollars on Wednesday, the funds saw 903 million dollars in net outflows Thursday — the second-largest single-day exit since the January 2024 launch. November’s total ETF outflows have now reached 3.79 billion dollars, surpassing February’s record and placing the month on track to become the worst in ETF history if flows do not stabilize. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) accounted for 63 percent of November’s redemptions, losing 2.47 billion dollars so far, including more than 1 billion dollars this week alone. Fidelity’s FBTC followed with 1.09 billion dollars withdrawn this month. Combined, the two funds represent 91 percent of all November outflows. The reversal erased weeks of accumulation and reignited concerns that institutional selling — not macro sentiment — is now driving short-term price direction.
Investor Takeaway
ETF flow dominance means that large U.S. funds now set the tone for Bitcoin’s direction. Heavy redemptions are far more destabilizing than in past cycles due to their scale and speed.
Mass Liquidations Accelerate the Selloff and Break Market Structure
The ETF exodus helped trigger a cascade of forced unwinds across leverage markets. Nearly 2 billion dollars in crypto positions were liquidated in 24 hours, according to CoinGlass, wiping out more than 396,000 traders. Bitcoin briefly fell to 82,000 dollars — its lowest level since April — before weakly rebounding. The largest single liquidation was a 36.78 million-dollar BTC-USD position on the Hyperliquid decentralized exchange. However, headline figures likely underestimate the true scale of the wipeout, as exchanges like Binance and OKX do not publish full liquidation data. Bitcoin is now down more than 30 percent from its October all-time high and is on pace for its worst monthly performance since the 2022 collapse. For Q4, it is tracking toward its weakest fourth quarter since 2018 — an unusual reversal for what is historically crypto’s strongest period. Short-term holder capitulation is rising sharply, with realized losses reaching levels comparable to the 2021 flush and the mid-2024 correction. BRN’s research team said liquidity is “thinning into a full-scale vacuum,” adding that forced selling rather than discretionary trading is dominating price action.
DAT Flows Collapse as Treasury-Style Accumulators Pause Buying
The downturn is being compounded by a sharp slowdown in inflows into digital asset treasuries (DATs) — corporate and fund vehicles designed to accumulate and hold Bitcoin. DefiLlama data shows DAT inflows fell from 10.89 billion dollars in September to just 1.93 billion dollars in October, an 82 percent collapse. After almost 20 billion dollars in crypto liquidations in October, inflows have barely recovered. As of mid-November, DAT allocations total only 505 million dollars, putting the month on course to be the weakest in all of 2025. The pullback is significant because DATs, like ETFs, amplified Bitcoin’s rise earlier this year by aggressively buying dips. Placeholder’s Chris Burniske warned that “the era of DAT selling has only begun,” arguing that the same structures that fueled upside can accelerate downside when liquidity reverses.
Investor Takeaway
DATs and ETFs amplified this year’s rally. Their simultaneous slowdown removes two of Bitcoin’s strongest bid sources, creating sharper downside volatility than in prior cycles.
Where Bitcoin’s Cycle ‘Max-Pain’ Levels May Emerge
As markets search for a bottom, analysts are mapping where forced-seller exhaustion may occur. Andre Dragosch, Head of Research at Bitwise Europe, said Bitcoin may be entering the “max-pain zone” — areas where institutional cost bases cluster and where capitulation typically resolves. Dragosch cited two levels:
- •Around $84,000: Roughly aligns with the average cost basis of BlackRock’s IBIT. A breakdown below this zone puts the largest ETF cohort underwater.
- •Around $73,000: Approximates MicroStrategy’s company-wide cost basis, representing the lower boundary of deep institutional pain.
He said a final bottom is “very likely” to form between these two zones, calling them “fire-sale prices” that historically align with cycle resets. BRN’s Timothy Misir added that Bitcoin’s fall below the Active Investors Mean now shifts focus to the long-studied True Market Mean at 81,900 dollars — the “last major line before full bear confirmation.” Despite macro data showing improving U.S. employment and global stimulus efforts, analysts agree that crypto is currently trading on internal mechanics: leverage pressure, ETF flows and diminishing liquidity. Bitcoin traded around 82,500 dollars at publication time, with major altcoins like ether, SOL and BNB posting double-digit losses.