BTC/USD: Bitcoin Brushes Against $38,000 in Steep 20% Drop Since ETF Approval

The spot Bitcoin ETF euphoria quickly turned into a severe pullback as the old market adage ‘buy the rumor, sell the news’ played out by the book.

• The price of Bitcoin BTCUSD has declined 20% since January 11 when US regulators approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs that are now offered by America’s biggest asset managers. The drop washed out roughly $200 billion from Bitcoin’s market cap as the price brushed against $38,400 per token, down from $49,000 on the day the ETFs went live.
• After the classic market adage ‘buy the rumor, sell the news’ played out by the book, cryptoland sentiment improved and shot the token’s price to levels around $40,000. The notable softening in demand for crypto products triggered a wave of outflows across the ETF issuers. Grayscale, for one, was knocked by $2.2 billion in withdrawal requests.
• Across the crypto spectrum, other big coins were also nursing losses after a string of bruising trading sessions. Ethereum ETHUSD, the second-largest token, is down about 18% since the monumental ETF launch. And Solana SOLUSD, the ultra-fast blockchain, is lower by 24%, moving from $108 to around $80 for the same time span.