Author: Nancy, PANews
With the market closed over the weekend, the cryptocurrency market faced a new round of severe price and sentiment shocks.
In just two days, Bitcoin lost key levels one after another, dropping from $69,000 on Saturday to a low of $62,000 this morning, erasing nearly all gains over the past three months. Panic sentiment quickly spread through the market, with increased selling pressure. The large-scale liquidations that followed further amplified the decline, impacting leveraged traders severely. Even many experienced market veterans found it difficult to withstand this sudden impact.
This round of significant corrections has sent chills throughout the entire cryptocurrency market. Since reaching a historical high of approximately $4.37 trillion in October 2025, the total market capitalization of global cryptocurrencies has shrunk by nearly half, evaporating more than $2.1 trillion. Currently, the cryptocurrency market is undergoing a severe stress test.
Rare Sell-off Hits Cryptocurrency Market, Pressure Mainly from the U.S.
A new wave of selling swept through the cryptocurrency market. Despite a temporary rebound in the U.S. stock market, it failed to reverse the ongoing downtrend of crypto assets.
According to CoinGecko data, Bitcoin dropped below $63,000 early on November 15, hitting a low of $62,000 on OKX, a decline of about 28.7% from the peak of $87,000 in September. The price fell by 14.5% over the past week.
Renowned trader Flood pointed out in a post on November 15 that this is one of the most aggressive and price-agnostic BTC sell-offs he has ever witnessed. Such capital flow raises suspicions about whether large sellers possess certain information or if hidden leveraged positions are being forcibly liquidated; he warned that in such circumstances, blindly placing buy orders without judgment could easily make one a target for being liquidated.
Flood further outlined several possibilities: whether sellers had foreknowledge of certain geopolitical events, as BTC happens to be the most liquid trading asset over the weekend; whether they had information regarding quantum computing; whether they were preempting larger forced sellers leaving the market; or whether the sell-off itself was a result of liquidations. Regarding the last scenario, Flood believes it might actually indicate an opportunity to place buy orders and absorb selling pressure. He also specifically noted that almost all the sell-offs occurred on Coinbase, particularly concentrated over the weekend.
As prices continued to tumble, the market did not see a strong rebound amidst a deep correction, and investor confidence plummeted. PANews' crypto market data and cycle indicators platform PAData show that the crypto fear and greed index has dropped to 10, with the market stuck in an “extreme fear” zone for consecutive days.
David Lawant, the research director at Anchorage Digital, also believed that the selling pressure on Bitcoin mainly comes from the U.S. He shared a chart indicating that during the period from November 9 to 14 UTC, the cumulative volume difference (CVD) of Coinbase's main BTC spot trading pairs fell to about -8,900 BTC, indicating that the active sell volume exceeded the active buy volume by about 8,900 BTC, showing the most obvious selling pressure among the four trading platforms in the chart. In contrast, during the same period, Binance and Bybit's CVDs were approximately -3,100 BTC and -700 BTC, while OKX had about 1,400 BTC.
Bitcoin's continued decline has also increased the holding pressure on the world's largest Bitcoin DAT company, Strategy, which has already incurred a floating loss exceeding $10.7 billion.
In comparison, Ethereum has seen a deeper decline, with losses significantly exceeding those of Bitcoin. The ETH price had briefly fallen below $1,800, registering a drop of about 22.5% over the past week. In global asset market capitalization rankings, Ethereum has fallen to 98th place, just $1.92 billion away from dropping out of the top 100. The global largest Ethereum DAT company, BitMine, has incurred a floating loss of $9.65 billion, nearly half of its total holding cost.
The overall market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market quickly shrank due to the impact of this round of sell-off, with evaporating scales continually expanding. CoinGecko data shows that as of November 15, the total market capitalization of global cryptocurrencies has fallen to $2.23 trillion, with a total evaporation of over $55.4 billion over the past 10 days, making it one of the largest sell-off waves in history. Historically, only four periods have seen a 10-day consecutive decline in market capitalization exceeding this round, occurring in May 2021, October and November 2025, and February 2026.
From Macroeconomic Tightening to ETF Withdrawals, Cryptocurrency Market Faces Multiple Pressures
This round of corrections comes amidst a series of negative factors hitting the cryptocurrency market, with selling pressure intensifying.
· Fed Rate Hike Expectations Rise, Macro Liquidity Under Pressure
The shift in the macro environment is undermining the attractiveness of risk assets. In October, U.S. inflation data exceeded expectations, combined with a stronger performance in the job market, leading to a rapid increase in the market's expectations for the Fed to continue tightening monetary policy within the year.
According to CME FedWatch data, as of November 10, the market's expectation probability for a 25 basis point rate increase by the Fed in December had risen to 88.5%, up significantly from about 76.3% a week earlier. Meanwhile, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond rose to around 5.16%, and the dollar strengthened, further suppressing the performance of risk assets.
The appeal of allocating to highly volatile assets like cryptocurrencies has also diminished. Bitcoin, as a risk asset that does not generate interest income, faces increased holding costs in a high-interest environment, leading to a higher opportunity cost. When U.S. Treasuries offer more attractive yields, some capital may shift to fixed-income assets, reducing the willingness to allocate to highly volatile assets.
· Continuous Net Outflows from ETFs, Spot Demand Remains Weak
ETFs have long been an important engine for institutional funds flowing into the cryptocurrency market, but now the situation has reversed, becoming a significant source of continued market bleeding.
Data from SoSoValue reveals that U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have recorded net outflows for three consecutive weeks, aggregating over $2.55 billion. Just last week, net outflows exceeded $1.07 billion. Among these, BlackRock's IBIT is the main source of outflows, with a net outflow of $2.12 billion since November, accounting for about 90.2% of the total net outflow from U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs in the same period.
The outflow situation for Ethereum spot ETFs is even more severe. Since its launch in July 2024, it is currently experiencing the most severe outflow phase, with net outflows recorded for seven consecutive weeks, accumulating more than $2.41 billion, exceeding both the outflow scale and duration of Bitcoin ETFs. Notably, in October alone, net outflows reached $1.61 billion, setting a historical record, with BlackRock's ETHA also being a major outflow channel.
Moreover, the willingness to buy in the U.S. market is also insufficient. CoinGlass data shows that the Coinbase Bitcoin premium index has been in negative territory for 53 consecutive days, recently reported at -0.07%, indicating that buying demand remains weak in the U.S. market. It is worth noting that this index previously turned positive on August 24 for the first time since May 19, reported at 0.0052%, ending a streak of negative premiums for 97 days.
· Nvidia Leadership Turmoil Impacts Tech Stocks, Risk Appetite Further Cools
On November 12, Nvidia announced that founder Jensen Huang resigned as CEO and board member, ending a 33-year leadership tenure since founding the company in 1993. The company’s CFO, Colette Kress, has taken over as interim CEO, and the board has initiated the selection process for a new CEO.
As a core enterprise in the global AI industry chain, the leadership change at Nvidia quickly drew market attention. Huang has long led the company's strategic direction and business development, and his departure not only introduces new uncertainties for Nvidia's future operations but also prompts investors to reassess the growth prospects, valuation levels, and financing models of the AI industry. Against the backdrop of already pressured AI tech stocks, this news further exacerbated market volatility.
At the same time, Anthropic has submitted IPO filing documents and plans to advance the listing process. The public offerings of large tech companies typically attract market funds and investor attention; in the current environment of weakened risk appetite, some investors may readjust their positions to reserve funds for potential IPO subscriptions.
· U.S. Midterm Elections Change Congressional Landscape, Crypto Regulation Faces Uncertainty
Changes in the policy environment add another layer of uncertainty for the cryptocurrency market. After the U.S. midterm elections, the Democratic Party gained control of both houses of Congress, ending the previous situation where the Republican Party simultaneously controlled both chambers.
It is well known that the Trump administration's policies have relatively supported the development of the cryptocurrency industry, providing some optimistic expectations for the market. However, with the shift in congressional control, the Democrats will regain authority over the agenda-setting and oversight of key committees, impacting the deliberation and progression of important legislation like cryptocurrency market structure bills. Particularly, the leadership of key institutions like the Senate Banking Committee may change, prompting the market to reassess the future direction of U.S. cryptocurrency regulation policies.
It should be noted that the change in the U.S. congressional landscape does not necessarily mean that U.S. cryptocurrency policies will shift towards comprehensive tightening, but the uncertainty in policy progression has already become an influencing factor on market sentiment.
· Key Support Levels Continuously Breached, Leverage Liquidations Further Amplify Downtrend
The market’s decline has not stopped with spot sell-offs, as concentrated liquidations of leverage positions have further accelerated the downward trend. Especially during weekend trading sessions, when market liquidity is relatively thin, large sell orders are more likely to trigger severe price fluctuations.
After Bitcoin continuously breached important support levels, a large number of highly leveraged long positions faced forced liquidations. The selling pressure triggered by the liquidations further suppressed prices and triggered more positions to be liquidated, forming a chain reaction that accelerated the market decline.
CoinGlass data indicates that in the past 24 hours, over $2.024 billion were liquidated across the entire network, affecting more than 318,000 accounts. Among these, $1.753 billion were from long positions being liquidated, while $271 million were from short positions; long traders were the primary victims of this round of liquidations.
It can be said that this round of decline is not just a price pullback, but also a reshuffling of market narratives and capital logic. When the cryptocurrency market will stabilize and whether it can regain an upward trend remain to be seen. However, for the market, the greater test now may be how to regain buying support and restore investor confidence.
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到[email protected]，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
