Nearly $870 million drained out of U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin (CRYPTO: $BTC) exchange-traded funds in the week ended November 5, marking one of the sharpest single-week outflow streaks since the products launched.
The heaviest selling came on November 5 alone, when investors yanked $430 million from Bitcoin ETFs managed by Fidelity Investments and BlackRock (NYSE: $BLK) as equity markets collapsed simultaneously.
A broader Wall Street selloff on November 5 sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling more than 1,800 points and pushed the Nasdaq Composite down 5.5%, officially dragging the index into correction territory.
Mounting anxiety over the durability of the artificial intelligence trade was cited as the primary driver of investor panic across both equity and digital asset markets.
Bitcoin’s price slid more than 5% to $75,000, its weakest level since late August, while Ethereum (CRYPTO: $ETH) fell to $2,200 as digital assets absorbed the collateral damage from the broader selloff.
Compounding the pressure on crypto sentiment, analysts pointed to two additional headwinds: the aftermath of a $6.3 billion theft at Binance on October 30, attributed by U.S. authorities to North Korea, and uncertainty around the Clarity Act following Democratic gains in midterm congressional elections.
Customer withdrawals from Binance surged to $10.97 billion after the exchange resumed operations on November 1, as clients rushed to pull both crypto and cash from the platform following the record-breaking hack.
Brazil’s largest crypto exchange, Mercado Bitcoin, separately disclosed a $46.3 million security incident that occurred in the days after the Binance theft, though the company said no customer assets or personal data were compromised and published wallet addresses to assist tracking efforts.
Amid the turbulence, Strategy (NASDAQ: $MSTR) Chairman Michael Saylor resumed his firm’s Bitcoin accumulation, acquiring 811 tokens for $65.5 million at an average price of $80,846 between October 26 and November 1, bringing total holdings to 849,327 BTC valued at $65.9 billion.
Stablecoin giant Tether (CRYPTO: $USDT) disclosed owning 150,000 Bitcoin worth $11.50 billion as part of a reserves report that also revealed more than 730 million global users and approximately 30 million active USDT wallets.
Stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group (NYSE: $CRCL) announced plans to eliminate roughly 55 positions, or 5% of its 1,100-person workforce, alongside third-quarter results that included a $9.1 million restructuring charge tied to the cuts.
Crypto infrastructure firm BitGo Holdings (NYSE: $BTGO) moved in the opposite direction, launching a new institutional business called “BitGo Global Markets” to consolidate liquidity, execution, financing, derivatives, and settlement services under one roof.
The new BitGo division will be headed by Pete Janney, a former executive at NYDIG, whose institutional and trading business BitGo acquired earlier this year.
Bitcoin miner-turned-data-center operator Hut 8 (NASDAQ: $HUT) reported a rough quarter, with its stock shedding as much as 18% on November 4 after posting an EPS loss of -$1.23 against the Wall Street consensus of -$1.06, and revenue of $71.07 million that fell short of the $75.8 million analysts had forecast.
Hut 8 also disclosed that its total loans and liabilities had grown to $7.41 billion as of September 30, adding further concern for investors already rattled by its earnings miss.
Ethereum treasury firm Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: $BMNR) returned to share buybacks after a ten-week hiatus, spending $45.9 million to repurchase 2.04 million shares at an average price of $22.48, its first repurchase activity since August 17.
On the institutional side, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: $MS) became one of the first banks to leverage the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation’s new tokenization infrastructure, tokenizing both U.S. equities and government Treasury bonds to enable around-the-clock trading and faster settlement.
