Bitcoin came under renewed selling pressure as weakness across technology stocks dampened investor sentiment, with Nvidia shares sliding following reports of a potential leadership change involving CEO Jensen Huang. Meanwhile, U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded another $299.9 million in net outflows, extending their withdrawal streak to five consecutive trading sessions.
Bitcoin (BTC) fell 0.7% from midnight UTC to approximately $73,400, trading near its daily low as losses spread across the technology sector. Ether (ETH) declined 0.5% to around $2,044, while the CoinDesk 80 Index dropped 1%. Over the previous 24 hours, Bitcoin and Ether were lower by 0.8% and 0.7%, respectively.
Nvidia emerged as a major source of market uncertainty, with its shares plunging approximately 7% in premarket trading. The decline followed a New York Times report concerning an alleged relationship between Huang and a company executive, as well as a Wall Street Journal report suggesting that the company’s board was preparing to remove him. Nvidia has not confirmed any plans to change its leadership.
The selloff extended into Nasdaq-100 futures, which declined 0.6%, reversing part of Wednesday’s advance supported by gains in AI infrastructure provider CoreWeave.
Institutional selling continued to weigh on digital assets. According to SoSoValue data, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs registered $299.9 million in net withdrawals on Wednesday, marking their fifth consecutive session of outflows. Total withdrawals since November 5 have now reached approximately $1.44 billion.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) accounted for the largest share of the latest withdrawals, with $269.7 million in redemptions. The fund has now recorded outflows for nine consecutive trading sessions.
Market participants are also preparing for the release of U.S. initial jobless claims data at 13:30 UTC while keeping an eye on developments surrounding Nvidia’s board. The Federal Reserve’s December 8–9 policy meeting remains another important consideration, with CME FedWatch data showing approximately 90% probability of an interest rate hike.
Crypto Derivatives Data Points to Declining Market Participation
Futures activity contracts across the market: Cryptocurrency futures trading volume fell 20.64% over 24 hours to $168.6 billion, while total open interest (OI) decreased 2.92% to $125.8 billion. The simultaneous declines suggest traders are reducing leverage and closing existing positions. Liquidations dropped 63.67% to $263.7 million, with long positions accounting for 64.5% of the total, highlighting greater losses among bullish traders.
Bitcoin futures reflect persistent selling pressure: BTC futures open interest declined 2.9%, significantly more than the underlying asset’s 0.6% price decrease. Trading volume also contracted 27.6%, while cumulative volume delta (CVD) remained negative, indicating that aggressive market orders continued to favor sellers. Funding rates stayed moderately positive, suggesting leveraged long traders were still paying short sellers. Bitcoin recorded the largest cryptocurrency liquidation total at $62.9 million.
Ether derivatives see a sharper decline in activity: ETH futures open interest slipped 1.8% alongside a 0.6% price decline. Trading volume plunged 37.2%, representing the steepest contraction among major cryptocurrencies. Unlike Bitcoin, Ether’s CVD remained neutral, pointing to relatively balanced buying and selling activity. Funding rates were moderately positive, indicating that long-position holders continued paying shorts.
Monero funding rates signal expensive leveraged longs: The annualized average funding rate for Monero (XMR) perpetual futures climbed to approximately 80%, considerably above levels recorded by other major cryptocurrencies. This means traders holding leveraged long positions are paying substantial fees to short sellers. Bitcoin and Ether also maintained positive funding rates, although at much lower levels. GRAM, formerly known as Toncoin, stood out with negative funding, meaning short traders were paying long-position holders.
Selling dominates CVD readings across major cryptocurrencies: Open-interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta remained negative for Bitcoin and several other leading digital assets. The readings suggest that market orders continued to favor sellers, reflecting cautious positioning across derivatives markets. GRAM, NEAR, and ZEC were among the few tokens recording positive CVD figures.
Dogecoin and Zcash futures experience notable withdrawals: Dogecoin (DOGE) futures open interest dropped 5.9% as its price declined 1.5%. Zcash (ZEC) also recorded a substantial 5.4% reduction in open interest, despite a relatively modest 0.4% price decline. However, ZEC’s positive CVD indicated that aggressive market orders continued to favor buyers even as outstanding futures positions decreased.
Bitcoin options continue reflecting demand for downside protection: BTC options skew, which compares the relative pricing of put and call options, edged higher to approximately 11% for one-week contracts. At the same time, one-week implied volatility declined to around 35% from 38% on Tuesday, suggesting traders were anticipating relatively smaller price movements. Four of the six most actively traded contracts were calls, led by the $80,000 strike expiring December 25. The other two were puts at $73,000 and $74,000, both expiring November 13.
Ether options retain a bearish bias: ETH’s one-week options skew increased to approximately 12%, indicating that investors continued paying more for downside protection than bullish exposure. Four of the six most actively traded contracts were puts, although the $2,200 call expiring November 20 recorded the highest trading volume.
GRAM Leads Cryptocurrency Gains as DeFi Tokens Decline
GRAM extends its rally for a second session: GRAM, the rebranded Toncoin, topped the CoinDesk 100 for another day, gaining 5.2% since midnight UTC. Growing activity surrounding Telegram’s wallet ecosystem has supported the token’s performance. Telegram founder Pavel Durov recently revealed that the application had generated more than 700,000 wallets within 48 hours.
Zcash rebounds following recent losses: ZEC advanced 2.4% after a difficult start to the week. Meanwhile, a proposed governance initiative seeks to withdraw 50,000 ZEC, valued at approximately $50 million, from the Zcash Community Grants treasury. Token holders are expected to vote on the proposal between November 16 and November 30.
Render falls alongside Nvidia shares: Render (RENDER), a decentralized GPU computing network, declined 3.1% as Nvidia’s sharp share-price drop weighed on sentiment toward cryptocurrency projects associated with artificial intelligence and computing infrastructure.
Avalanche gains on tokenization developments: Avalanche’s AVAX token climbed 2% as investors assessed Monday’s announcement that a clearing company associated with a proposed NYSE-affiliated tokenized securities platform intends to use the Avalanche blockchain, subject to regulatory approval.
DeFi tokens remain under broader selling pressure: The decentralized finance sector continued to struggle, with the CoinDesk DeFi Select Index (DFX) falling 1.6%. Aave (AAVE), ether.fi (ETHFI), and Ethena (ENA) declined between 2.5% and 3.3%. Monero recorded an even steeper 4.5% loss, making it the worst-performing asset in the CoinDesk 100 despite the absence of an obvious catalyst.
Altcoin Season Remains Unlikely as Market Sentiment Weakens
Market indicators continue to suggest that a broad-based recovery in alternative cryptocurrencies is not yet gaining momentum.
CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index slipped to 39 out of 100, compared with 40 in the previous session. The reading remains significantly below the 75-point threshold typically used to identify an altcoin season.
Meanwhile, the Crypto Fear and Greed Index stood at 26, keeping overall sentiment firmly within the fear category. Persistent ETF withdrawals, declining derivatives activity, and uncertainty across traditional financial markets continue to weigh on investor confidence.
