Billion-Dollar Liquidation Cascade Drains Market as Bitcoin Trades Below $90,000

Short-term holders capitulated. Leverage unwound. Bitcoin plunged to $89,300 on Tuesday 18 Nov, 2025.

Why it matters:

This wasn’t retail panic. It was structural deleveraging triggered by rate repricing and falling ETF demand, exposing how thin crypto liquidity has become.

Driving the news:

Bitcoin traded below $90,000 for the first time since April, hitting an intraday low of $89,300 on Tuesday before recovering to +$93,000 (now trading at ~$91,000).

Over $1 billion in crypto positions liquidated in 24 hours, with long positions accounting for $723 million of the wipeout, per CoinGlass data.

Markets repriced December rate cut odds from 95% a month ago to roughly 50% as of November 18, shifting from near-certainty to coin flip, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

Zoom in:

Short-term holders now hold 2.8 million BTC at a loss, the highest level since the FTX collapse in November 2022, when bitcoin traded near $15,000, Glassnode data shows.

The largest single liquidation came from Hyperliquid: a $96.5 million BTC-USD position wiped out in the cascade.

“The market is in the late stages of a capitulation cycle,” Timothy Misir, head of research at BRN, told The Block. “Fear is high, liquidity is thin, and derivatives leverage continues to unwind.”

Yes, but:

ETF assets under management in BTC terms only fell 3.6% from their October peak (1.38 million to 1.33 million BTC), suggesting the selling came primarily from long-term holders taking profits, not institutional redemptions.

Between the lines:

Fed repricing wiped out rate cut expectations whilst bitcoin’s market depth dropped roughly 30% from this year’s peak. When macro conditions tightened, there was no bid to catch the fall. 31,800 BTC were sent to exchanges at realised loss, with 148,000 BTC sold below $100,000.

Takeaway:

Leverage and liquidity are inversely correlated. When one spikes, the other vanishes.

ETF Outflows Compound Pressure as Institutional Demand Cools

Why it matters:

Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs posted $437 million in combined outflows last week, marking the first sustained capital withdrawal since product launches earlier this year.

What we found:

Bitcoin ETFs recorded $254.6 million in net outflows on Monday alone, extending a streak of redemptions that began in late October.

ETF flows turned decisively negative after six consecutive days of outflows totalling nearly $2.9 billion between October 29 and November 5.

The reversal follows weeks of institutional accumulation that pushed BlackRock’s IBIT to nearly $100 billion in AUM in just 435 days.

How it works:

ETFs act as absorption layers for spot selling pressure. When institutional buyers step back, retail liquidations hit the order book directly. Without that buffer, price discovery accelerates downward.

Short-term holders, defined as addresses holding BTC for fewer than 155 days, purchased near $104,000. With bitcoin now at ~$91,000, 99% of recent buyers sit underwater.

Yes, but:

Corporate treasury buyers like Strategy added $835.6 million in bitcoin in November, the largest purchase of BTC by the firm since July.

Takeaway:

ETFs were the bid. When they turned seller, the market had no safety net.

The Scoop

The DXY Dollar Index traded at 99.54 on Tuesday, up 0.98% over the past month, adding pressure to risk assets as rate cut expectations evaporated.

El Salvador added 1,098 BTC in the past week, bringing its national treasury to 7,474 BTC worth roughly $685 million.

Long-term holder supply declined from 14.76 million BTC in July to 14.30 million BTC as of November 16, a reduction of 452,532 BTC as multi-year holders took profits into strength.

To Watch

Event risk ahead:

• The Fed’s December 9-10 meeting looms with rate cut odds sitting at 50-50.
• September’s delayed employment data is due Thursday, the first major jobs report in months. If NFP comes in higher than predicted (hot), December odds for a cut reduce further. If it’s soft, the Fed gains cover to ease. Either way, volatility is often priced in.
• Beyond that, watch for any November CPI or PCE readings that could shift the hawkish repricing that’s been impacting risk assets all mo

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