Bitcoin falls below $70,000 as the fear index hits a four-month low

Bitcoin fell below $70,000 early on Friday and touched about $68,060 at 07:00 CET, CoinGecko data show. By 08:35 it traded near $68,800, down about 6.4% in 24 hours and about 9% over the week. The last daily close with bitcoin below $70,000 came on 20 August.

Ether lost about 5.4% to roughly $1,940. The Fear & Greed Index dropped to 20, or extreme fear, from 28 on Thursday. The index has not read this low since 8 July.

Alternative.me builds the index from volatility, trading volume, social media activity, bitcoin's share of the crypto market and Google search trends. Readings under 25 count as extreme fear, and the index spent most of June in that zone.

“Liquidity remains thin while leverage stays elevated, leaving the market vulnerable to sharp moves in either direction.”

— Tanay Ved, senior research associate at Talos, Talos weekly report, quoted by Cointelegraph

Quote source: Cointelegraph, 13 November 2026.

Funds keep selling

BlackRock's IBIT lost more than $2 billion in net outflows over nine sessions in a row through Wednesday, Cointelegraph reported. On Wednesday we counted the eighth session of that streak.

All US spot bitcoin ETFs together lost nearly $1.44 billion over five sessions. Preliminary Farside Investors data put Thursday's net outflow at $47.7 million, with BlackRock and Fidelity still to report.

Talos measured order book depth at about $72 million on 9 November, roughly a third below normal. With fewer resting orders, a single large sell moves the price further than usual.

Yields and the Fed

Between 5 and 12 November bitcoin lost 5.9% while the Nasdaq 100 gained 6.4%, 10x Research calculated. Gold fell 5.5% over the same week, and the US 10-year Treasury yield rose above 5%. The firm pointed to higher yields and a stronger dollar.

Vikram Subburaj, CEO of Indian crypto platform Giottus, linked the selling to expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike in December. Investors "should avoid chasing short-term dips or using excessive leverage," he told Cointelegraph.

The slide also follows a rough Thursday for tech stocks, when Nvidia shares fell after Jensen Huang resigned. On Wednesday bitcoin was testing its 200-day moving average near $73,000, and it now trades about 6% below that line.

If you trade with leverage, thin books mean a stop order can fill well below the price you set. Ved said a recovery needs deeper order books and a turn in fund flows, so the daily ETF figures are the first numbers to check.

Prices are CoinGecko data at about 08:35 CET and move fast in a market this thin. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.