Bitcoin Falls Below $72,000, Its Lowest Since August, as Strategy Loses Its MSCI Place and ETF Outflows Hit Day Five

Bitcoin gave up the level it defended after Tuesday's inflation shock. It fell below $72,000 on Thursday morning, its lowest since mid-August, and was near $71,800 at the time Bitcoin Magazine wrote, after a low of about $71,670 around 9:29 am Eastern. The earlier floor, about $72,700, had held since the hotter-than-expected inflation report.

This follows the calmer picture in our morning report, when bitcoin held near $73,400. The market is still trading, so these are snapshots, not a close.

How low did bitcoin fall on Thursday?

Bitcoin slid from about $74,700 to near $73,400 by 6 pm Eastern on Wednesday, dipped to about $72,200 shortly after 8 am, then broke through. Cryptonews said it was the first time below $72,000 since 20 August, with month-to-date losses of 7.4 percent and a drop of 3.5 percent on Thursday, which also put it back under its 21-week simple moving average. Fortune had it at $73,208.24 at 6:30 am Eastern, with ether at $2,037.25.

Liquidation figures differ by source and time. CoinDesk counted $263.7 million earlier in the morning, 64.5 percent of it longs, while Cryptonews quoted CoinGlass at $730 million over 24 hours. CoinDesk's Crypto Fear and Greed index stood at 26, in fear territory.

Why is Strategy being removed from MSCI indexes?

MSCI confirmed that Strategy, the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, will leave the MSCI USA, World and ACWI indexes at the close on 30 November, and Japan's Metaplanet is also due to go, Bitcoin Magazine said. Strategy shares fell about 7 percent at the open. Coinspeaker reported that MSCI judged the company more like a bitcoin investment fund than an operating business, that index funds hold about 13 million of its shares, or 3.1 percent, and that JPMorgan estimated forced selling at about $2.8 billion.