Bitcoin slips as U.S. inflation fails to spark gains, ETFs see August’s first two-day drawdown

Spot bitcoin ETFs saw back-to-back outflows for the first time since late July as the largest cryptocurrency wiped out last week’s gains and altcoins struggled to find direction.

Spot bitcoin ETFs saw $192 million in back-to-back outflows as bitcoin fell to its lowest level since Aug. 3.
While U.S. stocks gained after cooler-than-expected producer price data, crypto markets lagged, with bitcoin and ether slipping even as some altcoins outperformed.
Derivatives and funding data show growing bearish positioning in tokens like bitcoin cash and hedera. Bitcoin volatility eased and options flows remain mixed.

Bitcoin BTC$62,876.38 dropped below $63,000, losing 1.14% since midnight UTC as a second day of outflows from spot exchange-traded funds and a lack of bullish catalysts weighed on the crypto market.

Spot bitcoin ETFs experienced the first back-to-back days of outflows since late July with $192 million exiting the products, according to SoSoValue.

The largest cryptocurrency is now trading at its lowest point since Aug. 3 having wiped out all of last week’s rally. Ether ETH$1,878.36 is down by 0.73% since midnight, while a portion of the altcoin market continues to show resilience, outperforming crypto majors.

U.S. equities were boosted on Thursday by producer price inflation data, which cooled to 4.7%, below forecasts. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 both rallied following the report, and futures on the indexes remain marginally in the black.

Derivatives positioning

Futures churn continues: While the crypto market is under pressure, the long-short taker ratio in futures remains balanced, with longs accounting for half of the flow. 24-hour volume growth is again outpacing open interest (OI) growth by a wide margin. That’s a sign of churn rather than fresh positioning.
BCH sees heaviest fresh shorting: Futures tied to Bitcoin Cash BCH$203.32 are the biggest OI gainer of the past 24 hours, adding 10% to 1.64 million tokens as the spot price drops 3%. That combination points to short positions being built up. Deeply negative annualized funding rates support that interpretation. The 24-hour OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta (CVD) is negative too, signaling that shorts are trading more aggressively via market orders rather than passive limit orders. Together, these signals point to positioning for a deeper selloff in the token.
BTC OI rises alongside falling price: Bitcoin is another OI gainer, with the tally rising over 3% to 765,000 BTC alongside a negative CVD. Annualized funding rates, however, still hold mildly positive.
HBAR shows the clearest bearish tilt: The token’s 24-hour CVD is the most negative among the top 25 coins, with funding rates around -20%, pointing to a market clearly dominated by bears. More broadly, all the top 25 are showing negative CVD.
Bitcoin volatility cools: BTC’s 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV, fell back below 36%, erasing a spike to nearly 39% earlier this week. That points to continued investor interest in overwriting strategies — approaches aimed at generating extra yield on top of spot holdings. Ether’s equivalent index, EVIV, is showing the same pattern.
Options positioning stays mixed: On Deribit, BTC calls at the $70,000, $69,000 and $67,000 strikes rank among the five most-traded bets. For ETH, puts at the $1,700 and $1,780 strikes ranked higher instead.

Token talk

Ether.fi (ETHFI) is the standout performer over the past 24 hours, rallying by 11.5% after adding tokenized stocks and DeFi loans to its neobank platform. The token gave back some of the gains on Friday, dropping 3.3%.
Cosmos ATOM$1.4834 also experienced upside. The token surged by more than 10% in 24 hours and trading volume jumped by 232% to $51 million despite the absence of a clear news catalyst.
Fetch.ai FET$0.1334 and monero (XMR) extended their positive weeks, rising 0.55% and 0.81%, respectively, since midnight UTC.
NEAR, MORPHO, TAO and JUP all lost around 2% since midnight as cautious sentiment remains the dominant theme across the crypto market.