Bitcoin fell to $62,006 on Binance on Sunday, its lowest price in about three months. The world’s largest cryptocurrency has lost about 15% in 11 days. Over the same stretch, American investors pulled $1.91 billion out of US-listed Bitcoin funds.
Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao listed six possible reasons on Sunday, but opened with a warning.
“Why are crypto prices down? No one knows for sure. Correlation does not prove causation,” he warned.
How Far Has Bitcoin Fallen?
Bitcoin traded near $87,000 in late September. It was still around $81,000 on November 4. It slid below $70,000 on Friday and touched $62,006 on Sunday before bouncing to about $64,500.
Traders who borrowed money to bet on higher prices were hit hardest. About $1.96 billion in such bets across crypto were forcibly closed in 24 hours. Roughly $600 million of that came from Bitcoin bulls.
Here are the six reasons CZ named, and what the record shows on each.
1. Is Money Leaving Crypto for the Anthropic IPO?
CZ’s first suggestion was that investors are selling crypto to buy into Anthropic’s stock market debut. To make that case, he linked to a post by Matt Cole, chair and CEO of Bitcoin treasury firm Strive.
BitMine chairman Tom Lee has floated a similar theory.
The deal is large. Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude chatbot, plans to sell 825 million shares at $70 to $78 each, according to its amended SEC filing dated November 10.
That could raise up to about $64 billion. Pricing is expected on November 18, with trading on Nasdaq under the ticker ANT the next day.
No public data shows how much, if any, Bitcoin was sold to fund IPO orders.
2. Are American Investors Pulling Out of Bitcoin Funds?
Yes, and this is the most measurable pressure on the list.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs are funds that hold real Bitcoin and trade on US stock exchanges like ordinary shares. They are how many American retirement savers and institutions own Bitcoin.
These funds lost $1.91 billion over seven straight trading sessions from November 5 to 13, SoSoValue data shows. Friday alone saw $185.4 million leave, including $143.5 million from BlackRock’s IBIT and $41.9 million from Fidelity’s FBTC.
Binance Research called it “one of the worst seven-session outflow episodes since launch.”
3. Did Hacks and Exploits Scare Investors?
CZ pointed to a run of security incidents: “the Binance hack, iPhone-linked crypto wallets drained, Chrome exploit, Microsoft down.”
- Binance: Hackers stole about $6.3 billion from the exchange on October 29, the largest crypto theft on record. The attack has been linked to North Korean hackers. Binance says all customer funds are safe and that it replaced about 98% of the stolen coins.
- iPhones: Security firm CertiK warned on November 6 that a hacking kit called DarkSword was targeting crypto wallets on iPhones that had not been updated. Apple had patched the flaws by iOS 26.3.
- Chrome: Google fixed an actively exploited Chrome flaw on November 9, its eighth this year, SecurityWeek reported.
- Microsoft: Outlook and other Microsoft 365 services went down on November 12. Microsoft said there was “no indication of malicious or cyber activity,” per Splashtop’s incident summary.
“These security incidents could make some people less willing to keep funds in crypto,” CZ wrote.
4. Did Hot Inflation Put a Fed Rate Hike Back on the Table?
US consumer prices rose 0.4% in October, above the 0.3% economists expected. Core prices, which strip out food and energy, rose 0.3%.
Fed Governor Christopher Waller said he was leaning toward a rate increase in December. A rate hike makes borrowing more expensive and tends to hurt assets that investors treat as risky.
5. Are Higher Yields and a Stronger Dollar Hurting Bitcoin?
CZ wrote that “higher yields and a stronger dollar can weigh on ‘riskier assets’ such as crypto.” When safe US government bonds pay more, holding Bitcoin, which pays no interest, looks less attractive.
Futures markets were pricing in 64 basis points (0.64 percentage points) of Fed rate increases over the next year as of November 13, up from 37 at the start of the month, according to Coinbase Institutional research cited by Finwire.
6. Could the Midterm Results Bring Tougher US Crypto Rules?
Democrats won control of both the House and Senate in the November 3 midterms.
The CLARITY Act, the industry’s main bill to set clear US rules for crypto markets, already failed a key Senate vote 49-50 in September.
Democrats are expected to write a different version when the new Congress sits in January. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said a bipartisan crypto bill was possible, “but not this bill.”
Bitcoin’s reaction to the election results was mixed. It dipped toward $75,600 as results came in, then recovered to about $81,000 the next day, according to Finwire.
What Do Binance’s Leaders Say?
CZ said Binance did not sell crypto during the slide. “I bought crypto in the past few days, as I got some stablecoins recently. (maybe this is the cause),” he joked.
Binance co-CEOs Richard Teng and Yi He posted the same message word for word on X on Sunday, 70 minutes apart.
“Short-term pressure across markets is a normal reaction to tightening macro conditions and shifting sentiment around AI financing,” they wrote. “But the long-term case for Bitcoin and crypto remains intact.”
Binance Research tied the drop to doubts about how AI companies are funded. Over the same 11 days Bitcoin fell 15.6%, futures tracking Nebius, a US-listed AI cloud company, fell 27.5%.
Notably, however, his comparison does not prove AI-related selling caused Bitcoin’s decline.
Some traders see a simpler cause. Analyst Michaël van de Poppe called it “a super rare, leverage-flush-driven correction,” meaning borrowed bets unwinding all at once. He said he was buying.
What Happens Next?
Three US dates are on the calendar this week:
- Monday, November 16: The first ETF flow data since Friday’s outflows.
- Tuesday, November 17: Nvidia reports earnings, its first since CEO Jensen Huang resigned on November 12. CFO Colette Kress is interim CEO, Nvidia said. Binance Research said it will watch for comments on AI financing commitments.
- Wednesday, November 18: Anthropic’s IPO is expected to price, according to CNBC.
CZ closed with a long-term view. “Mid-long term, crypto will continue to grow,” he wrote. “Views are my own. Not financial advice.”
The post What's Behind Bitcoin's Drop? CZ Points to 6 Possible Reasons appeared first on BeInCrypto.
