Bitcoin Slips Below $70,000 as ETF Outflows and Hack Repercussions Extend Six-Week Slide

Cryptocurrency markets continued their downward trend through the week ending Nov. 13, with Bitcoin falling below the $70,000 threshold to trade near $69,100, according to market reporting from Yahoo Finance. The drop represents a 9% slide over five trading sessions and extends a sector-wide retreat to six consecutive weeks. Ethereum, the second-largest digital asset by market value, also experienced heavy selling, dropping beneath its $2,000 support level.

The sustained pullback underscores compounding pressures across macroeconomic sentiment and digital asset market infrastructure. Cryptocurrencies have tracked persistent volatility in broader equity markets, where investor anxiety has intensified around artificial intelligence capital expenditure, expectations of prolonged high interest rates, and executive turnover including the resignation of Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang. Concurrently, institutional demand channeled through exchange-traded funds has cooled, with net outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs surpassing $1.56 billion year-to-date.

Market sentiment remains depressed following a major security breach at Binance. The exchange revealed on Oct. 30 that attackers stole $6.3 billion worth of digital assets from its trading platform. The U.S. Department of Justice subsequently announced the seizure of $1.2 billion of the compromised tokens, formally attributing the attack to TradeTraitor, a cyber unit linked to the North Korean military. Industry security leaders have since warned of escalating platform risks; Ledger chief executive Pascal Gautier publicly cautioned that large-scale intrusions are becoming pervasive, while Ethereum research group Ethlabs moved its target timeline for deploying quantum-resistant cryptographic defenses forward to 2027 from 2028.

Despite the downturn, select corporate balance sheets and institutional intermediaries continued expanding their digital asset commitments. Corporate treasury firm Strategy purchased 1,036 Bitcoin for $81.9 million during the week ended Nov. 6 at an average price of $79,012 per token, raising its aggregate reserve to 850,364 Bitcoin—surpassing 4% of the circulating supply. Quarterly regulatory filings also showed JPMorgan Chase increased its equity stake in Strategy by 36% to 848,932 shares as of Sept. 30, alongside a 10% increase in its position in BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust. In Europe, Deutsche Bank formally introduced institutional digital asset custody services, enabling corporate clients, asset managers, and sovereign funds to manage private keys and custody Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins.

Other industry participants are retrenching. Bitmine Immersion Technologies reported a $6.23 billion net loss for its fiscal year ended Aug. 31, citing the sharp decline in its accumulated Ethereum treasury despite generating $124.8 million in annual revenue, 97% of which derived from staking rewards. Gemini completed the sale of its U.K. and European operations to stablecoin payments company KAST for just under $10 million as part of an effort to streamline international costs. In prediction markets, Polymarket initiated workforce and contractor reductions ahead of a contemplated 2027 public listing, following Donald Trump Jr.'s departure from an advisory role at competing platform Kalshi after his venture firm, 1789 Capital, acquired a significant position in Polymarket.