Bitcoin has crashed to about $80,000, a steep 36% drop from its October high of $126,000. November has been the worst month for BTC since June 2022, and even long-time holders are starting to get uneasy.
The numbers tell the story:
• More than $4 billion has flowed out of Bitcoin ETFs
• Liquidations are piling up into the hundreds of millions
• Retail traders who bought in 2025 are now down 13%, with an average entry of $103,000
• The Fear & Greed Index has fallen to extreme fear, its lowest level in three years
Institutions vs. Retail: Total Opposites
Retail investors are panicking but big players aren’t.
According to Coinbase Institutional, central banks and universities see the drop as a buying opportunity and are scooping up BTC. Still, the overall picture is far from simple.
November just set the worst ETF outflow record since ETFs launched in January 2024:
• It even beat February’s previous record of $3.56B
• BlackRock’s ETF alone lost $2.47B, making up 63% of all U.S. spot ETF outflows
• Whales quietly moved $405M worth of BTC off exchanges into cold storage, signaling long-term conviction
• A negative Coinbase Premium shows U.S. institutions are still selling
Strategy Isn’t Backing Down
While the market drops, Strategy keeps buying aggressively.
From July to November, the company added thousands of coins including 4,225 BTC for $472M in July at around $111,000 each.
Their current position:
• 649,000 BTC
• Average buy price: $66,000
• That’s 3% of all Bitcoin ever created
Michael Saylor says these purchases are essential in a world where the dollar keeps losing value. The company is already up 13.7% this year (Q3 report).
Other major players are doing the same:
• Adam Back bought $35M in BTC
• Kazakhstan is shifting from gold to bitcoin
• JPMorgan now calls BTC “cheap”
• Tesla has quietly resumed buying
Universities Are Buying Big Too
Even academic institutions are jumping in:
• Harvard tripled its BlackRock ETF holdings, now at $443M
• BNY Mellon increased its exposure by 140%
In 2025 alone, ETFs soaked up 975,000 BTC about seven times the mining output.
Corporate treasuries now hold over 1 million BTC.
Standard Chartered still expects Bitcoin to hit $200,000 by year’s end, but only if price recovers to the $95,000–$100,000 range first.
