Bitcoin Holds Near $74,000 as Spot ETF Outflows Hit $95 Million

Bitcoin traded near $74,000, little changed since midnight UTC after briefly dipping to about $72,700 on Tuesday, while Ether remained close to $2,050. The CoinDesk Memecoin Index fell about 1.2% and the CoinDesk 80 Index slipped 0.3% as U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded another day of net outflows.

Stock futures, by contrast, moved higher early Wednesday, with Nasdaq-100 contracts gaining on upbeat earnings from AI cloud-computing provider CoreWeave. The U.S. bond market is closed today for Veterans Day.

Market flow and macro backdrop

The probability of a Fed rate hike for the Dec. 8–9 meeting has risen to roughly 90% on the heels of hotter-than-expected U.S. consumer inflation for October. Over the past 24 hours bitcoin slid about 0.7% and ether roughly 1.7%. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs lost $95 million on Tuesday, extending outflows for a fourth straight session; BlackRock’s IBIT accounted for $78 million of those redemptions.

Derivatives positioning

• Liquidations spike: Crypto futures liquidations jumped 288% to $725 million within 24 hours amid the hotter inflation print, according to CoinGlass. Trading volume rose 24% to $204.8 billion while open interest eased 1% to $127.2 billion, suggesting traders trimmed positions.
• Bitcoin funding remains positive, but subdued: BTC open interest fell 0.2% versus a 0.6% price decline. Funding sits at 0.0078% (about 8.6% annualized), below a typical 0.01% baseline, so longs are still paying shorts but to a lesser extent. The taker buy/sell ratio is 0.97, indicating sellers have the edge. Liquidations totaled $200.5 million with 85% from long positions. December contract basis runs roughly 5%–7% annualized.
• Ether liquidations outsized: ETH open interest dropped 3.6% against a 1.7% price fall, showing capital exiting the market. Ether liquidations reached $253 million — larger than bitcoin’s outsized figure despite ETH’s smaller open interest (~$25.2 billion). Funding for ether remains positive at 0.0059%.
• Altcoin outflows: Zcash led altcoin liquidations at $40.3 million after plunging about 13%, with its open interest down 10.5%. XRP and HYPE also saw open interest declines (3.8% and 3.0%, respectively), exceeding their price moves — a sign of capital leaving those markets.
• TradFi-linked perps gain share: Four of the ten most-traded perpetual futures over 24 hours were tied to traditional finance: SOXL ($8.4B), SanDisk ($4.4B), gold ($2.4B) and Nvidia ($2.0B). SOXL’s volume surpassed that of Solana and XRP; Nvidia perp open interest jumped 50% to $411 million after the stock fell 5.5% on Tuesday.
• Puts dominate options flow: On Deribit, for BTC options expiring Nov. 12–27, put volume was about 1.5x call volume. Eight of the ten most active contracts are puts between $69,000 and $74,000, led by the Nov. 27 $69,000 put. Friday’s expiry is concentrated in far out-of-the-money calls, with the largest open interest at $81,000 (8,306 BTC) and $84,000 (5,231 BTC).
• Volatility steadies; downside protection priced higher: At-the-money implied volatility sits near 36% for Nov. 27 options and about 38% for Nov. 13. Puts at the 25-delta point trade roughly 4–5 vol points above calls, reflecting sustained demand for downside hedges.

Token movements and thematic notes

• Gram/TON resurgence: Telegram’s wallet initiative has pushed gram (TON) higher — it led the CoinDesk 100 with an approximate 5% gain since midnight UTC after Pavel Durov said over 700,000 wallets were created in 48 hours.
• Zcash weakness, Monero strength: ZEC tumbled about 14% as leveraged longs were liquidated and money left Grayscale’s Zcash ETF, while Monero climbed roughly 2% since midnight UTC.
• Midnight (NIGHT) advances: Midnight, a privacy chain connected to Cardano, rose near 5% after completing its Ledger 9 mainnet upgrade this week.
• Altcoins lag bitcoin: CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season index is at 40/100, down from 49 last Thursday and well below the 75 threshold commonly associated with a true altcoin season. Bitcoin’s dominance of the overall crypto market rose to 60.5% from 59.9% on Friday. The Fear & Greed Index reads 26 — squarely in “fear” territory.