Bitcoin Funds Record $643 Million Outflow, Biggest Single-Day Withdrawal in October
Key Facts
U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded net outflows of $643 million on Friday, the biggest single-day withdrawal in October, according to Reuters via Investing.com. The withdrawals came amid turmoil in the crypto-asset market after the Binance hack, while Reuters reported that the market capitalization of stablecoins had fallen since Friday. The agency said the decline could indicate that some investors were moving into cash or traditional assets. The confirmed figure in the day's data therefore relates to Friday's withdrawals and does not, by itself, establish the reason for investors' moves or their scale over two sessions.
The funds' outflows coincided with withdrawals from Binance after the platform reopened following the theft of crypto assets estimated at about $6.3 billion. Reuters said the platform's customers had withdrawn a net $4.72 billion by November 2. It quoted Binance as saying net withdrawals amounted to about 3% of the assets held on the platform. The company added that it had recorded $2.7 billion in customer inflows since Sunday, indicating that some funds returned after the withdrawal wave. These figures describe customer activity at one platform alongside flows from exchange-traded funds; they do not provide evidence that a specific political factor caused them.
Across the market, Bitcoin fell to a six-week low on Friday before recovering over the weekend and trading above $77,000 on Monday, according to Reuters. Another report by the agency said the cryptocurrency hit a low of $76,368 on October 30 during the sell-off linked to the Binance hack. Reuters also reported that liquidations of leveraged positions exceeded $1.3 billion on Friday, alongside the $643 million in outflows from spot Bitcoin funds. These moves place the price decline, withdrawals and liquidations in the same session, before the cryptocurrency recovered in the following days. Tim Sun of HashKey Group said a trading-platform hack "is like robbing a bank at internet speed," adding that it creates "an unstable risk profile for those managing other people's money."
Reuters compared the scale of current withdrawals from Binance with earlier movements in the crypto market during periods of turmoil. About $7 billion was withdrawn from USDC over a week after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023. After FTX collapsed in 2022, Binance itself recorded net outflows of about $6 billion over 72 hours. These events provide historical context for comparing the size of the withdrawals, but they involved separate incidents and different circumstances. In the current crisis, Binance said it would absorb the financial impact of the stolen funds and had assembled $6 billion from its corporate treasury, an insurance fund and reserves earmarked for security incidents.
The U.S. midterm elections take place on November 3 and will determine whether the Republican Party retains control of Congress, according to the Associated Press. The available sources do not establish that the election prompted investors to withdraw funds or that the outflows reflect an electoral trend. Market attention then turns to the U.S. October employment situation report, scheduled for release on November 6 at 08:30 a.m., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics calendar. The Federal Reserve holds its next meeting on December 8 and 9, according to its official calendar. These dates follow a sell-off that saw withdrawals from funds and the platform, followed by Bitcoin's recovery above $77,000 on Monday.