Bitcoin ETFs Face Tough Times – Market Info

The cryptocurrency market continued its decline over the past two weeks, with Bitcoin briefly falling below the $90,000 mark. The total market capitalization of the crypto market dropped by 9% over the two-week period and currently stands at around €2.71 trillion.

The crypto Fear & Greed Index reached its lowest level of the year this week, briefly dropping to 10 out of 100, and is currently at 11 points. The altcoin season index stands at 45 out of 100, up 6 points over the past two weeks.

Source: Coinmarketcap

Bitcoin ETFs Face Tough Times

The Bitcoin ETF market has been turbulent in recent days. BlackRock recorded the largest capital outflow from its Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) since its launch, and other funds were also affected. On November 18 alone, investors withdrew as much as $523 million from BlackRock’s fund. This trend was not isolated – IBIT faced outflows for the fifth consecutive day, signaling a clear change in institutional investor behavior. The reason is not panic but strategic portfolio reshuffling. During periods of high market volatility, large players seek to optimize their exposure to digital assets, reducing risk, moving part of the capital back to exchanges, realizing profits, or minimizing potential losses.

Source: Farside

A similar development is currently observed in other U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs. Institutional investors are undergoing a rebalancing phase, resulting in a series of outflows across multiple funds. Although Bitcoin ETFs play a crucial role in capital flows in crypto markets, investor behavior indicates that even the largest and most stable funds are not immune to rapid changes in sentiment.

BlackRock is also moving some Bitcoin assets back to exchanges to meet client requests for reduced exposure. These outflows reflect the cyclical behavior of large investors rather than a fundamental loss of confidence in Bitcoin or ETF products. It is more a signal that the market is entering a cautious phase, with a focus on portfolio stability. Despite short-term withdrawals, Bitcoin ETFs remain one of the most important bridges between traditional finance and the crypto market. In the coming weeks, it will be interesting to see whether trends reverse after rebalancing and investors return to ETFs. Source

El Salvador Aggressively Bought During the Dip

El Salvador again showed that its long-term Bitcoin strategy does not change even during sharp market fluctuations. When Bitcoin fell below $90,000, El Salvador purchased more than 1,000 BTC worth approximately $100 million, increasing its total holdings to around 7,500 BTC. This is the largest single-day purchase officially announced by the country.

The move came as President Nayib Bukele confirmed that the country plans to continue systematic daily Bitcoin purchases. However, the purchase raised questions about whether these were new acquisitions or merely internal transfers between state wallets. The IMF insists that the government should not buy additional Bitcoin under the loan agreement, and earlier reports suggested the reserve increase might mainly involve consolidation of assets.

Despite these doubts, the Bitcoin Office of El Salvador maintains that these are real purchases, supported by on-chain data. The latest update also comes after a period of increased cooperation with the United States in digital assets, including a meeting between President Bukele and U.S. officials.

Beyond purchases, El Salvador aims to strengthen its position as a leader in cryptocurrency regulation in Latin America. This year, the country signed a memorandum of understanding with Bolivia’s central bank to share technical and regulatory expertise in digital assets and blockchain analytics. El Salvador continues to build its image as a state committed to leading Bitcoin adoption, despite market volatility and international pressure. Source

Cloudflare Outage Affects Multiple Crypto Exchanges

Cloudflare, a key network infrastructure provider for thousands of websites, experienced a widespread outage on Tuesday that temporarily took many crypto websites and social networks offline. The problem started after the company reported an “internal service degradation,” which affected access to the frontends of several popular sites.

During the incident, users reported that Coinbase, Blockchain.com, Ledger, BitMEX, Toncoin, Arbiscan, and DefiLlama were inaccessible. Social networks such as X and Truth Social were also affected, while BluSky and Reddit remained largely unaffected. Cloudflare identified the problem and deployed a fix, continuing to monitor the situation.

According to the company, the cause was a misgenerated configuration file for handling malicious traffic. The file unexpectedly grew beyond limits, causing part of Cloudflare’s software to crash. The outage demonstrated the vulnerability of modern digital services when a single centralized infrastructure layer fails. Experts note that despite efforts toward decentralization, the crypto space remains highly dependent on centralized providers like Cloudflare. A similar event occurred in October, when issues at Amazon Web Services temporarily disrupted Coinbase, Robinhood, and MetaMask. The incident reignites discussions about the need for more robust and decentralized infrastructure solutions in an industry aiming to eliminate single points of failure. Source

Ethereum Drops Below $3,000

Ethereum fell to a four-month low, dropping below $3,000 for the first time since July. The decline reflects a sector-wide risk-off shift as investors question whether the bull trend continues after a 40% correction from the August all-time high. ETH moves almost identically with the broader altcoin market, indicating this is not an Ethereum-specific problem but rather a response to global macroeconomic pressures.

The market has been hit by concerns over slowing global growth, U.S. government uncertainty, new tariffs, and weak consumer-sector earnings. Doubts about the sustainability of the AI sector, struggling with high data center costs and energy constraints, have also reduced investors’ risk appetite. This is reflected in muted ETH futures premiums, which have stayed below the neutral level for a month.

Weak on-chain data adds to the negative sentiment. Ethereum’s Total Value Locked (TVL) fell to $74 billion, and DEX trading volumes dropped by over 25%. While Ethereum still dominates deposits, and Layer-2 networks such as Base, Arbitrum, and Polygon have greatly increased scalability, moving activity off the mainnet reduces base-layer fee pressure and ETH burning effects.

Despite the decline, Ethereum is not losing its position. The Layer-2 ecosystem strengthens its leading role in real-world asset tokenization and decentralized stablecoin systems. Base alone processed nearly 102 million transactions in a week, comparable to networks with much larger deposits. Ethereum’s outlook largely depends on global geopolitical and economic stabilization. If central banks inject liquidity again, ETH has the potential to rebound. Source

Will Liquidity Inflows Change Crypto Market Sentiment?

Bitcoin has recently faced weakness that cannot be attributed solely to U.S. Fed policy. The downturn began in early October, mainly due to deteriorating economic conditions in the U.S. Slower freight activity, a weaker housing market, and declining corporate cash flow created an environment where investors reduce risk across the market. Bitcoin is reacting to broader macroeconomic pressure, not just interest rate developments.

The Fed faces dilemmas ahead of the December 10 meeting, with markets split on expectations – some expect a 0.25% rate cut, others foresee no change. Trump-era tariffs increase inflation risk, limiting room for rapid monetary easing, while the cooling U.S. job market indicates overly restrictive policies could further slow the economy.

A positive signal is the Fed’s decision to halt the decline of its balance sheet at $6.5 trillion, effectively ending quantitative tightening. Repo operations could inject liquidity into banks without increasing Fed assets, improving conditions for risk assets, including Bitcoin. Long-term liquidity is one of the most important factors influencing crypto market sentiment. Additionally, stimulus packages for low-income households in 2026 and gradual tariff easing could reduce inflation pressures, creating a favorable environment for Bitcoin’s recovery in the coming months. Source

Mt. Gox Moves BTC Again

The Japanese crypto exchange Mt. Gox, hacked in 2014, made its largest Bitcoin transfer in eight months, moving 10,608 BTC worth roughly $953 million to a new wallet. This was the first large movement since March, when 893 BTC worth $77.3 million were moved. Mt. Gox still holds approximately 34,689 BTC, about $3.14 billion.

The move surprised the crypto community, especially as Mt. Gox postponed creditor repayments until October 2026 due to incomplete rehabilitation procedures. This keeps around $4 billion of Bitcoin off the market for another year, reducing the risk of sudden sell-offs. Although transfers from Mt. Gox may raise concerns about potential market pressure, their impact diminishes as new institutional participants, including Bitcoin treasury firms and U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, absorb the released supply.

Since the first tranche of repayments in July 2024, Bitcoin’s price has risen over 60%, from around $56,160 to $91,172. Some analysts expressed concerns that the $953 million transfer may indicate a potential sale, putting further downward pressure on the market. However, the receiving wallet has held the BTC and has not sent it to centralized exchanges, which would be a clearer sign of selling.

Mt. Gox was once the dominant Bitcoin exchange, covering more than 70% of all BTC trades at its peak after launching in 2010. It collapsed in 2014 after losing approximately 850,000 BTC in one of the largest crypto hacks in history. A long civil rehabilitation process has since sought to recover and distribute remaining assets to creditors, who have faced repeated delays and shifting repayment schedules.

This Bitcoin movement from Mt. Gox reminds investors that even old and inactive exchanges can affect the market, highlighting the importance of tracking large crypto transfers when evaluating risks and trends. Source

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