Bitcoin Drops Below $66,000 Amid Mounting ETF Outflows, $4B Withdrawn In 12 Days

The market’s leading crypto, Bitcoin (BTC), is coming under fresh pressure as multiple warning signs converge—from heavy selling in the exchange-traded fund (ETF) complex to renewed doubt around Strategy’s long-held “never sell” narrative. 

The result has been a weak session: on Wednesday, the cryptocurrency slipped below the key $66,000 level, extending a selloff that has already erased about $160 billion in overall market value this week, according to Bloomberg.

Earlier in the week, Michael Saylor’s Strategy sold roughly $2.5 million worth of Bitcoin from a large holding currently valued at around $56 billion. Strategy reportedly reduced its hoard by only 32 tokens out of 843,706 coins. 

Even so, analysts say the size of the sale matters less than the message it sends—especially at a time when Bitcoin has been underperforming over the past few weeks.

Rajiv Sawhney, head of international portfolio management at Wave Digital Assets, argued that the financial impact is negligible compared with Strategy’s overall position. He described the sale as “financially trivial,” calling it essentially “a rounding error” relative to a stake worth around $62 billion. 

However, Sawhney emphasized that what matters is market psychology: the idea that the company has long maintained a “never sell” posture had been part of the market’s expectations. 

Bitcoin’s weakness is also taking shape against a very different backdrop in traditional markets. US equities have been moving higher, and tech stocks in particular are making new highs. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) remains the dominant theme drawing capital, and the numbers show the difference clearly. Over the past 12 months, the Nasdaq 100 has been up 42%, while Bitcoin has been down 37% and currently sits 48% below its peak.

Carney Mak, a partner at FXHB Asset Management, said part of the rotation has involved moving capital from Bitcoin and digital assets into AI stocks. In his view, AI offers a more favorable risk-reward setup compared with digital assets, which has encouraged some investors to rebalance their portfolios.

Macro and liquidity conditions are also becoming harder to ignore. Mak noted that crypto currently lacks a strong near-term catalyst, and market performance has increasingly become range-bound. In that environment, he said, results are more dependent on overall liquidity and broader economic factors. 

The Bitcoin ETF market is adding another layer of pressure. Bloomberg data indicates investors have pulled nearly $4 billion from US-listed Bitcoin exchange-traded funds over the past 12 sessions—marking a record streak of consecutive outflows. 

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at around $65,721, having recorded a loss of almost 2% on Wednesday, adding to the 12% retracement recorded over the previous seven days, according to CoinGecko data. 

Featured image created with OpenArt; chart from TradingView.com