Bitcoin nears $60,000 as $4.4 billion in ETF outflows flip institutional sentiment

Bitcoin fell 17.3 percent last week to trade near $60,000 as spot ETF outflows reached $4.4 billion over 13 consecutive sessions.

"The institutional bid that supported Bitcoin at $60,000 in February has vanished," Vetle Lunde, head of research at K33 Research, said. "ETF flows are now a net drag."

The outflows contrast sharply with February, when Bitcoin last traded near $60,000 and institutional selling eased into the dip. This time, ETF products recorded redemptions for 13 straight days through June 3, with cumulative withdrawals of $4.4 billion, K33 data shows. Ether ETFs logged a 17-session outflow streak that ended the same day.

A decisive break below $60,000 — Bitcoin briefly dipped under that level on Friday — could accelerate redemptions and push prices toward the next major support near $52,000, a level not tested since October 2024.

The broader market rout erased approximately $390 billion in aggregate value, bringing total crypto market capitalization to just over $2 trillion, TradingView data shows. That represents a contraction of more than 50 percent from the October 2025 peak of nearly $4.2 trillion.

Leveraged traders faced roughly $7 billion in liquidations across centralized exchanges, with long positions accounting for $5.7 billion of that total, Coinglass data shows.

Macro Pressure Compounds the Selloff

Friday's stronger-than-expected US jobs report pushed the 10-year Treasury yield above 4.5 percent and sent the Nasdaq 100 down 4.7 percent — its steepest single-day decline since October 2025. Markets that had priced in rate cuts now face the prospect of the Federal Reserve holding rates higher for longer.

The macro headwind hit an already fragile crypto market. Bitcoin ETF outflows had been running for nearly two weeks before the jobs data, and the selloff accelerated as institutional investors rotated capital into AI-related equities ahead of anticipated public offerings from OpenAI, Anthropic and SpaceX, Lunde said.

Social sentiment around Bitcoin reached its most pessimistic reading since mid-February, according to Santiment. Terms including "dead," "finished" and "over" appeared alongside Bitcoin discussions at the highest frequency in months.

Whether the current level represents a bottom or a waypoint to lower prices depends on whether ETF outflows stabilize and macro conditions improve. The next test comes this week as markets digest the jobs report fallout and monitor whether Bitcoin can hold above $60,000.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.