Bitcoin slipped below the $80,000 line for the first time this week and was trading near $79,500 by mid-morning New York time, capping a four-session run of failed attempts to reclaim $82,000. The world's largest cryptocurrency opened the day at $79,283, down roughly 1.5 per cent from Wednesday's open and about $2,400 below where it stood a year ago.
The proximate driver was a sharp single-day outflow from US spot bitcoin ETFs. Wednesday's net redemption of $635 million was the heaviest since late January and broke a stretch of moderate inflows that had supported price action through April. IBIT, Fidelity's FBTC and Bitwise's BITB accounted for the bulk of the move.
Technical analysts noted that bitcoin turned lower from the 200-day moving average overnight, a level it had been testing for several sessions. The next defined support, traders said, sits around $76,800; below that, the chart opens up toward the post-halving lows in the low $70,000s.
Ether tracked bitcoin lower, slipping 2 per cent toward $2,830. Solana held up better, down only 0.9 per cent, as institutional flows into the chain's staking ETFs continued to absorb selling.
The broader crypto move came against a US risk-on backdrop that would, on most other days, have been supportive: equities at fresh records, dollar weaker, geopolitics easing. Crypto traders said the disconnect reflected positioning rather than narrative — long-only funds were trimming bitcoin overweights into a strong equity tape.