Bitcoin Sits Out Tech Rally as Spot ETF Outflows Persist for a Fourth Session

Bitcoin hovered around $74,000 as stronger-than-anticipated U.S. inflation data pushed market expectations for a Federal Reserve interest-rate hike close to 90%. Meanwhile, spot Bitcoin ETF outflows extended their losing streak to four consecutive days, while liquidations across crypto derivatives markets climbed sharply.

Bitcoin (BTC) traded near $74,000 with little movement since midnight UTC after recovering from Tuesday’s decline to $72,700. Ether (ETH) also remained close to $2,050. The CoinDesk Memecoin Index slipped 1.2%, while the CoinDesk 80 Index recorded a 0.3% decline.

Digital assets failed to match the recovery across U.S. equity futures during Wednesday’s early trading. Nasdaq-100 futures rose 1.7% after AI cloud computing provider CoreWeave reported quarterly earnings above analysts’ expectations.

According to SoSoValue, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs experienced $95 million in net outflows on Tuesday, marking their fourth consecutive session of withdrawals. BlackRock’s IBIT accounted for $78 million of the outflows, extending its redemption streak to eight straight trading days.

The latest inflation figures also strengthened expectations of tighter monetary policy. U.S. consumer prices increased 0.4% in October, exceeding forecasts and raising the probability of a Federal Reserve rate increase at its Dec. 8–9 meeting to approximately 90%, according to CME FedWatch. Bitcoin declined 0.7% over the past 24 hours, while Ether lost 1.7%.

U.S. bond markets remained closed Wednesday for Veterans Day.

Derivatives Market Sees Heavy Liquidations

Liquidations jump across crypto futures: Total cryptocurrency futures liquidations increased 288% to $725 million over 24 hours, according to CoinGlass. The sharp rise followed Tuesday’s hotter-than-expected inflation report. Derivatives trading volume climbed 24% to $204.8 billion, while open interest decreased 1% to $127.2 billion, indicating that traders were reducing their exposure.

Bitcoin funding rates signal cautious sentiment: Bitcoin open interest fell 0.2%, compared with a 0.6% decline in its price. Funding remained positive at 0.0078%, or 8.6% on an annualized basis, below the usual 0.01% benchmark. This indicates that long traders continued paying short traders, although bullish positioning was relatively subdued. The taker buy/sell ratio stood at 0.97, showing that sellers maintained the advantage. Bitcoin liquidations totaled $200.5 million, with long positions accounting for 85%. The annualized basis on December futures contracts remained between 5% and 7%.

Ether liquidations exceed Bitcoin’s: Ether recorded $253 million in futures liquidations, surpassing Bitcoin despite its open interest of $25.2 billion being approximately half as large. Ether open interest dropped 3.6%, while its price declined 1.7%, suggesting that traders were exiting positions and withdrawing capital. Its funding rate remained positive at 0.0059%.

Altcoin derivatives experience further contraction: Zcash (ZEC) led altcoin liquidations with $40.3 million as its price dropped approximately 13%. Its open interest contracted 10.5%. XRP open interest declined 3.8% against a 1.8% price decrease, while HYPE open interest fell 3% as its price slipped 2.2%. These declines indicate that traders were reducing exposure across several altcoin markets.

Traditional financial assets attract derivatives traders: Four of the 10 most actively traded perpetual futures contracts over the previous 24 hours were linked to traditional financial assets, according to Coinalyze. The Direxion 3x Semiconductor ETF (SOXL) recorded $8.4 billion in volume, followed by SanDisk at $4.4 billion, gold at $2.4 billion, and Nvidia at $2 billion. SOXL’s volume exceeded the trading activity of Solana and XRP. Meanwhile, open interest in Nvidia perpetual futures climbed 50% to $411 million after the stock declined 5.5% on Tuesday.

Bitcoin put options see increased activity: Put options expiring between Nov. 12 and Nov. 27 recorded 1.5 times the volume of call options on Deribit. Eight of the 10 most actively traded contracts were puts, with strike prices concentrated between $69,000 and $74,000. The Nov. 27 $69,000 put attracted the highest trading activity. Friday’s expiry, however, showed heavier positioning in far out-of-the-money calls, with open interest reaching 8,306 BTC at the $81,000 strike and 5,231 BTC at $84,000.

Options pricing reflects continued demand for protection: At-the-money implied volatility stood near 36% for Nov. 27 contracts and 38% for Nov. 13 options. Puts at the 25-delta strike traded four to five volatility points above comparable calls, indicating that investors continued to favor downside protection.

Token Market Developments

Telegram’s expanding digital wallet ecosystem gained attention as gram (GRAM), the renamed toncoin, led the CoinDesk 100 with approximately 5% gains since midnight UTC. The move followed Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s announcement that more than 700,000 wallets had been created through the application within 48 hours.

Zcash (ZEC) suffered a sharper decline, falling approximately 14% over 24 hours as leveraged long positions were liquidated and investors withdrew capital from Grayscale’s Zcash ETF. Monero (XMR) moved in the opposite direction, gaining around 2% since midnight UTC.

Midnight (NIGHT), the privacy-oriented blockchain associated with Cardano, climbed approximately 5% after its Ledger 9 upgrade went live on the mainnet earlier this week.

Altcoins continued to underperform Bitcoin as market participants showed limited interest in rotating into smaller digital assets. CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index dropped to 40 out of 100 from 49 last Thursday, remaining considerably below the 75-point level generally used to identify an altcoin season.

Bitcoin dominance increased to 60.5% of the overall cryptocurrency market, compared with 59.9% on Friday. Meanwhile, the Crypto Fear and Greed Index remained at 26, reflecting continued fear and caution among cryptocurrency investors.