Spot Bitcoin ETFs shed $635M in one day as BTC slides back to September levels

what happened

Bitcoin traded near $80,000 on Saturday, a level it last held in September. Stocktwits, citing SoSoValue data, reports that US spot Bitcoin ETFs saw more than $635 million in net outflows on Thursday. That figure almost matches the total loss for the week ending October 9 ($681 million) and is nearly three times the $229 million withdrawn the previous week.

Oil added to the pressure. Brent climbed more than 3% on Friday and closed at $116.72 a barrel, its strongest close since April. Reports that the US and Israel might prepare fresh strikes on Iran revived geopolitical concerns. According to the CME FedWatch tool, markets assigned a 90% probability that the Federal Reserve keeps rates in the 375-400 basis point range at its October 27-28 meeting, while 10% priced a move to 400-425.

CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost argued that oil does not affect Bitcoin directly. In his view, the bigger drag is the weaker economy that costly crude creates. Bitcoin is down more than 8% so far this year.

why it matters

The key link for markets is the combination of expensive oil and tighter monetary policy, which weakens appetite for risk, while ETF outflows reduce institutional demand for Bitcoin. On Galaxy's Galaxy Brains podcast, Thorn said the roughly $58,000 level Bitcoin touched in June looked to him like the bottom of this cycle. He also noted that October has historically been Bitcoin's strongest month.

market impact

Bitcoin and crypto ETFs: capital outflows weigh on BTC; oil works indirectly through the economy and Fed rate expectations

tags

instruments