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Bitcoin falls to seven-month low

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Investor jitters pressure risk assets

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Lack of speculative spirit weighing, analyst says

By Manya Saini and Niket Nishant

Nov 19 (Reuters) - Investors pulled roughly $523 million

from BlackRock's ( BLK ) flagship iShares Bitcoin Trust on

Tuesday, according to data from Farside Investors, marking the

fund's largest single-day withdrawal since its launch.

Bitcoin, a bellwether for crypto markets, fell below

$90,000 this week, its lowest level in seven months.

IBIT, the largest spot bitcoin ETF, has attracted strong

investor demand since its launch in January 2024 and has been

central to the crypto ETF boom.

The fund outflows highlight the severity of the selloff in

bitcoin, which has corrected sharply after hitting a record high

in October, and underscore how deep the pullback has been across

risk assets.

In contrast, gold has remained resilient, calling into

question bitcoin's status as a hedge or as a replacement for the

yellow metal. Some analysts have said the moves point to

investors swapping bitcoin exposure for gold.

"The crypto market entered a hangover in August," said

Kraken's Global Economist Thomas Perfumo, adding a lot of that

demand was driven by borrowed money.

"Momentum seemingly peaked during the summer. But the truth

is this hangover trend started months ago," he added.

Analysts have also pointed to profit-taking by long-term

shareholders as well as growing caution among bitcoin treasury

firms, which had stepped up their purchases earlier in the year.

"Bitcoin treasury companies purchased nearly $50 billion of

bitcoin over the past year. Recently, many of these firms have

begun trading at a discount to net asset value, which weighs on

near-term market expectations for net new bitcoin purchases by

these firms," said Brian Vieten, research analyst at Siebert

Financial.

The shift comes at a time when several heavyweight investors

have raised concerns about stretched valuations across asset

classes.

"An ongoing lack of speculative spirits is weighing on

bitcoin," said José Torres, senior economist at Interactive

Brokers.

IBIT, which has over $73 billion in assets, has fallen 19%

quarter-to-date.