Bitcoin slid to $72,670, its lowest level in 11 weeks, after US inflation for October came in above expectations. Short-term holders took the biggest hit: within a day they moved more than 47,000 BTC to exchanges, coins now worth less than they paid. Both the Fed outlook and weak ETF demand are pressing on the price.
Hot inflation brought rate-hike talk back
The US consumer price index rose 0.4% month on month in October, and the core measure added 0.3%. Traders did not expect that, so they started pricing in a Fed rate increase in December, according to CoinDesk. For assets with no yield this is a bad signal: the higher the rate, the more attractive deposits and bonds become.
Stocks recovered part of their drop after the report, while bitcoin did not. CoinDesk reports that it sat out the equity rebound. The Block recorded a slide below $74,000, and the analysts it cites warn of a possible move toward $70,000 if support near $73,000 fails.
The difference shows in fund flows. Equities are held up by inflows into index funds, while crypto has no comparable backing yet. When Cointelegraph published, BTC traded near $74,000 per CoinGecko, down 5.2% over seven days. From the September peak of $87,200 that is roughly 15% lower.
Underwater holders head for exchanges
CryptoQuant counted 47,025 BTC with unrealized losses sent to exchanges by short-term holders in the 24 hours to midnight UTC at the start of Wednesday. That is one of the largest daily totals in the four months its dataset covers. The group includes wallets holding coins for up to 155 days, and they are usually the first to sell when the price drops.
The ratio is striking. On Tuesday profitable transfers were around 1,700 BTC, so for every profitable bitcoin moved, about 27 arrived at a loss.
The cost basis of this group sits near $75,700, and the price is now below it. The previous peak of such transfers, 50,500 BTC, came on Oct. 8, when bitcoin was falling back to $80,000.
ETFs: outflows slow but continue
US spot Bitcoin ETFs lost $95 million net on Tuesday, and November outflows have reached about $1.6 billion, per SoSoValue. The pace is easing: $430 million on Thursday, $412 million on Friday, $201 million on Monday. Still, BlackRock's IBIT shed another $78 million, its eighth straight session of withdrawals and about $1.73 billion in total, according to Farside Investors.
While bitcoin funds bled, investors bought stocks. Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas noted that all 17 of the top US ETFs by five-session inflows invest in equities, and the ETF market took in around $12 billion a day. Morgan Stanley's Bitcoin Trust gained $20 million, which was not enough to offset the outflows.
Slower exits are not a reversal. A trend change needs days of net inflows, not just smaller losses. Banks are not rushing out, though: in third-quarter filings reported by Cointelegraph, Barclays raised its IBIT stake 48% to $187 million, and Citigroup disclosed a new $119 million position in Fidelity's Bitcoin ETF.
Indicators are weak and support is narrow
CryptoQuant's Bitcoin Bull Score fell to 20 from 90 on Oct. 13, which analysts called extremely bearish. Apparent bitcoin demand shrank by 284,000 BTC over 30 days, the fastest pace since March 2025. Similar conditions have preceded local bottoms before, but a deeper correction remains possible, CryptoQuant warned, naming $73,200 as a key support level.
CryptoQuant head of research Julio Moreno allows that the market may still be in the downtrend that began in November 2025. If rallies keep stalling near the short-term holders' cost basis, the August rebound will look like a pause rather than a reversal, the analyst wrote on Monday.
For Ukrainian users the effect is simple arithmetic: selling bitcoin for hryvnia yields roughly 15% less in dollar terms than at the September peak. Current exchanger offers for this direction are collected on Kurslog.
The December Fed decision is the next test
The market is squeezed between two numbers: $73,200 as support and $75,700 as the short-term holders' cost basis. With ETF outflows fading slowly and traders pricing in a rate increase, bounces have weak footing. Two things stay on the radar: whether inflows return to bitcoin funds, and whether the price holds above $73,200 on a daily close.
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