Bitcoin Drops Below $73K as ETF Outflows Fuel Liquidations

Bitcoin fell below $73,000 on Thursday after $1.02 billion flowed out of spot-Bitcoin ETFs over three days and rising tensions in the Middle East. Exchange and tracking data show roughly $1 billion in crypto liquidations during the decline.

Bitcoin reached an intraday low near $72,712 and was trading around $73,330, down about 3.3% over 24 hours. The token is about 6% lower over the past week and roughly 33% lower year over year. U.S. equities remained near record levels, with the S&P 500 close to its all-time high.

Liquidations across crypto exchanges totaled approximately $931 million to $937 million in a single day, despite Bitcoin falling less than 4%. Market data indicate many leveraged positions were forced to close while the token traded in a narrow range earlier in the month.

Spot-Bitcoin ETFs recorded $1.02 billion in outflows over three days. Flow trackers show outflows of about $1.26 billion and $1.0 billion in the prior two weeks. Market participants also identified a roughly $1.3 billion block trade of BlackRock’s IBIT that executed in a dark pool and removed liquidity from public order books.

Justin d’Anethan, head of research at Arctic Digital, described the ETF withdrawals as “real directional recalibration rather than simple profit-taking or maybe adjusting hedged exposure.”

Clashes near the Strait of Hormuz have pushed U.S. crude futures toward $92 a barrel. Prediction markets put the probability of West Texas Intermediate reaching $120 at about 58%, up from the prior day.

Adam Haeems, head of asset management at Tesseract Group, noted: “ETF outflows are still net negative, the Coinbase Premium Index has stayed negative through both the rally and the pullback, and order-book depth on Coinbase sits in the low tens of millions within two percent of mid. When the book is that thin, every macro headline moves price further than the underlying flow would justify.”

Users on a prediction market lowered the chance of Bitcoin reaching $84,000 to about 62% from roughly 74% a few days earlier. The probability of a decline to $55,000 rose to about 38% from 22% a week ago.

ETF withdrawals continued during the session and market data showed thin order-book depth on major exchanges within two percent of mid, according to analysts.