Bitcoin Buckles Under $80K as ETF Outflows Top $600M and Corporate Treasuries Post Billion-Dollar Losses

Bitcoin drops below $80,000 amid record $1.26B ETF outflows and heavy corporate impairments from Metaplanet and Twenty One Capital, while Charles Schwab launches direct crypto trading.

Bitcoin’s slide below $80,000 on Thursday laid bare a market caught between two powerful headwinds: heavy institutional selling via spot ETFs and a mounting tally of corporate balance-sheet damage from the first quarter’s crypto rout. The digital asset changed hands at $79,726, down 0.94% on the day and 2.09% lower on the week, as the 200-day moving average at $82,270.88 remained out of reach.

The most immediate pressure came from US spot Bitcoin ETFs. On May 13, investors pulled a net $635 million from these products — the largest single-day exodus since January 29. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust bore the brunt with $284.69 million in redemptions. Over the past five trading sessions, cumulative withdrawals reached roughly $1.26 billion, dragging the total net inflows since the vehicles launched in January 2024 from $59.76 billion down to $58.5 billion. The exit from BlackRock’s fund was particularly striking, given its status as a primary conduit for institutional capital; when that flow reverses, the signal resonates louder than an outlier day at smaller funds.

Adding to the bearish tone, quarterly earnings reports have revealed staggering impairments at companies that piled into Bitcoin as a treasury asset. Metaplanet, Japan’s largest publicly traded Bitcoin holder, reported a net loss of roughly $726 million for the first quarter, almost entirely from marking its crypto holdings to market. The firm continued buying regardless, adding 5,075 BTC to end the period with 40,177 coins — a stash that accounts for about 87% of all Bitcoin held by Japanese listed companies. Its target remains 210,000 BTC by the end of 2027. Twenty One Capital fared even worse, with a net loss of $859.7 million, including $847.8 million in Bitcoin writedowns. The fair value of its reserves slid from $3.80 billion to $2.95 billion, though management says its $114.1 million liquidity cushion can last at least a year.

Nakamoto posted a GAAP loss of $238.8 million, with the Bitcoin price decline from $87,519 to $68,220 over the quarter accounting for $102.5 million of that. An additional $107.7 million came from losses on a call option. In Hong Kong, Boyaa Interactive expects a quarterly loss of about $60 million, citing a 23.8% slump in the value of its Bitcoin holdings — more than double the year-ago period’s decline. Not every company is staying the course: Bitcoin Society halted its accumulation program on May 12, pointing to the first-quarter price drop and the resulting difficulty in raising capital.

Yet even as these exits and impairments mount, traditional finance is opening a new channel for retail demand. Charles Schwab launched direct spot trading in Bitcoin and Ethereum for eligible individual clients, moving beyond the ETF and derivatives products it had previously offered. The broker, which oversees roughly $11.77 trillion in client assets across 39.1 million active brokerage accounts, charges 75 basis points per transaction and has made the service available nationwide. Schwab said its clients already hold about 20% of their wealth in US spot crypto ETPs. The move puts it in more direct competition with Robinhood, Coinbase and Kraken, and underscores that the structural embrace of crypto by mainstream intermediaries continues apace.

Macro conditions haven’t helped the near-term mood. The latest US consumer price index came in at 3.8%, above the 3.7% forecast and a sharp acceleration from the prior reading of 3.3%. That dims the prospect of early rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, which held its benchmark rate in the 3.50% to 3.75% range at its April 30 meeting. Higher rates tend to weigh on risk assets, and Bitcoin, sensitive to liquidity shifts, often moves first. Adding to uncertainty, Fed Chair Jerome Powell is set to hand over to Kevin Warsh, whose first FOMC meeting isn’t scheduled until June.

Technically, the failure to reclaim $80,000 is more than a psychological blow. The gap below the 200-day moving average now stands at roughly 3.09%, and the area has repeatedly acted as resistance during recent recovery attempts. Short-term traders are turning cautious, but the bigger picture remains mixed: US spot Bitcoin ETFs still manage about $105.01 billion in assets, Bitcoin’s market cap is roughly $1.33 trillion (far ahead of Ethereum’s $233 billion), and Strategy continues to buy, now holding 818,869 BTC valued at $65.7 billion. K33 Research analysts note a recurring purchase pattern around the 15th of each month. For now, the market’s immediate test is whether it can claw back above the 200-day average and staunch the flow of institutional cash — even as the industry’s biggest gatekeepers push the other way.