Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), referred to as “blue-chip” companies in the world of cryptocurrencies, have seen a sharp fall in their prices on account of volatile macro conditions globally, and profit booking by large institutional investors, said industry players.
BTC price fell from $115,699.2 level as on September 20, 2025 to $91,835.5 as on 18:30 IST, November 20, down 21 per cent. ETH fell from $4,480.41 to $3,028.86 during same period, down 32 per cent. BTC touched its all-time high of $126,198.07 just last month, while ETH hit an all-time high of $4,953.73 in August, according to investing.com and coinmarket cap.
Sumit Gupta, Co-founder and CEO at CoinDCX, said over the past month, both BTC and ETH have experienced elevated volatility primarily due to macro-driven liquidity shifts and profit-booking by short-term market participants. Bitcoin dropping below the $90,000 mark the first time since April has been influenced by US-China tariff row, tightening global liquidity, uncertainty around US fiscal conditions, and rapid position unwinding by leveraged traders.
“At the same time, broader market sentiment has been oscillating, as investors reassess risk assets amid mixed inflation cues and shifting expectations around interest rate policy. Even blue-chip tokens are not insulated from these forces. However, it’s important to note that the structural fundamentals for BTC and ETH remain intact,” he said.
Crypto outflows
He added that recent ETF flow data shows that spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen about $2.59 billion in outflows this month, with BlackRock’s IBIT recording roughly $1.26 billion outflows and Fidelity’s FBTC around $540 million. These outflows indicate investor repositioning, Gupta says, but they should not be interpreted as a strategic exit by major institutions.
According to Vikas Gupta, Country Manager at Bybit India, while some of the recent decline appears to be driven by profit-booking rather than any meaningful exit from long-term institutional investors, BTC’s breach of key technical support levels has intensified the market reaction, triggering automated liquidations and resulting in steeper price swings. The trend line support in the $95,000-$100,000 range also appears to have been breached, leading to heavy liquidations and reducing stability at current levels.
“Recent on-chain data indicates notable outflows from BTC and ETH wallets controlled by large institutions, and this is also visible in ETF redemptions led by major issuers such as BlackRock and Fidelity. As a result, this has raised questions about whether large financial institutions are actually reducing their exposure to crypto assets. However, these outflows appear to be driven by short-term profit-taking and regular portfolio rebalancing rather than a long-term exit from the crypto space,” he said.
Outlook
Aishwary Gupta, Global Head of Payments at Polygon Labs, said technically BTC is still in a post-halving cyclical uptrend, but with much more institutional flow this time. As long as it holds its higher-lows structure on the weekly chart, the broader bull cycle remains intact, even with deep corrections. The key levels to watch are the prior cycle’s range highs as support zones, and the ETF-driven “price discovery” area as resistance. If those supports hold through macro volatility, BTC continues to behave like a high-beta, digital macro asset for 2025-26.
For ETH, Gupta says, the technicals intersect more directly with fundamentals: On-chain, ETH is gradually turning into infrastructure/”tech equity” plus collateral for rollups, DeFi, and restaking. Structurally that supports a longer-term uptrend even if it underperforms BTC in phases.
“From a chart perspective, the important thing is whether ETH can sustain a multi-year pattern of higher highs and higher lows against both USD and BTC. If it does, 2025-26 looks like a consolidation-plus-accumulation phase where ETH behaves like a growth asset leveraged to the broader crypto/app-chain cycle,” he said.
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Published on November 20, 2025
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