More than $700M flowed out of US spot Bitcoin ETFs in a single day this week, marking the sharpest pullback in two months. Let’s dive into why is crypto crashing?
According to Bloomberg’s latest report on January 21, investors pulled roughly $709M from spot Bitcoin ETFs listed in the US. It was the biggest daily outflow since November 20.
The exit followed a stretch of market tension sparked by President Donald Trump’s renewed tariff threats against Europe.
His comments raised fresh fears of a broader trade conflict and pushed investors out of risk assets across global markets.
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Bitcoin slipped below $88,000 during Tuesday’s sell-off before stabilizing in the upper-$89,000 range.
The total crypto market cap fell about 2–3% over 24 hours, holding just above the $3 trillion mark.
The shift in flows stands in sharp contrast to early January, when spot Bitcoin ETFs pulled in about $1.4Bn in net inflows over a single week.
The sudden reversal shows how quickly sentiment has turned as trade headlines and rising bond yields dominate the macro picture.
Derivatives data points to de-risking rather than a full unwind. CoinGlass data shows Bitcoin futures open interest near $58.5Bn, with about $63.5Bn traded in the past 24 hours.
Liquidations sit around $110M, while Bitcoin trades close to $89,500.
Across the wider crypto market, futures open interest is near $132Bn, set against $260Bn in daily volume.
Roughly $600M in positions were cleared out over the past day, suggesting cautious repositioning instead of panic.
DefiLlama’s dashboard puts perpetuals open interest just above $19Bn, with $30.2Bn in 24-hour volume a mild drop from last week.
Bitcoin’s share of on-chain trading remains small. Its native chain saw about $0.7 million in spot DEX volume and $15 million in perp flows, compared with nearly $14.4Bn in spot trades across global DEXs.
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Bitcoin’s on-chain flows shifted this week as more coins moved toward selling venues.
Data cited by Ali Charts shows about 15,000 BTC flowed into centralized exchanges over the past seven days. At current prices, that stash is worth roughly $1.35Bn.
On-chain data from Glassnode shows exchange balances rising again after a brief period of steady outflows earlier this month.
Traders usually watch these inflows closely because they can point to fresh selling pressure or short-term positioning.