Ether fell alongside Bitcoin on Wednesday, dragging the ethereum price lower as the market sold off: Bitcoin dropped about 3% to roughly $75,000 and the global crypto market cap slipped almost 1.5% to $2.53 trillion.
The move came on heavy flows and liquidation activity. More than $350 million was liquidated across top crypto assets in the previous 24 hours, spot Bitcoin ETFs posted total net outflows of $333.6 million, and spot Ethereum ETFs saw $35.1 million in redemptions. On Tuesday alone, BlackRock’s IBIT had $192.4 million in outflows, Fidelity’s FETH recorded $17 million in redemptions, and BlackRock’s ETHA lost $1.9 million.
Market plumbing added to the pressure. A $1.3 billion BlackRock Bitcoin ETF sale executed in a dark pool block trade was recorded, and crypto funds globally logged $1.47 billion in outflows for the week. CoinDesk had reported that ether traded at $2,098 on Tuesday and that Bitcoin traded at $76,600 on Tuesday, with Bitcoin down 0.8% since midnight UTC that day.
The Crypto Market Fear & Greed Index captured the mood shift, sliding from 34 to 25 on Wednesday. CoinDesk also noted that ether had shed more than 10% over the past two weeks, while zcash had lost around 7% since midnight on Tuesday; those moves underscored a stretch of technical weakness after recent gains elsewhere in the market.
Sanctions-related frictions amplified selling. The United Kingdom’s sanctions on HTX affected transfers or transactions between platforms and HTX, and exchanges OKX and BIT warned that transactions between addresses and HTX may be subject to enhanced compliance reviews, additional verification, restrictions, or other risk-control measures — a factor that contributed to HTX-linked liquidations in recent trading.
Not every token moved the same way. On the weekly scoreboard reported by Sanbase, NEAR surged about 62%, RAIN climbed 57%, and HYPE rose 25% over the week, illustrating how flows chased select winners even as flagship assets weakened.
Analysts and traders described the selloff as a continuation of recent correction pressure rather than a full-blown crash. The decline combined macro risk-off sentiment with fresh ETF outflows, the HTX sanctions-driven disruption and straightforward technical weakness across Bitcoin and ether, according to market observers tracking the same price and flow data.
The immediate tension in the market is that large, visible outflows and the $1.3 billion dark-pool block trade raise questions about liquidity at the top of the market even as pockets of the crypto ecosystem keep outperforming. More than $350 million in liquidations and roughly $333.6 million in spot-Bitcoin ETF net outflows point to forced selling that can deepen short-term moves, while $35.1 million leaving spot Ethereum ETFs underlines pressure specific to ether demand.
Investors are heading into a key macro data point: US personal consumption expenditures inflation figures, due this week, which the market is watching for clues on Federal Reserve policy and risk appetite. That timing means the next directional leg for Ethereum price and the broader market will likely hinge on how traders interpret the PCE reading against the backdrop of continued ETF withdrawals and sanctions-related compliance steps.
