The Daily: Spot bitcoin ETFs see second-largest outflows on record, Michael Saylor slams rumors Strategy sold BTC, and more

The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter,  The Daily , which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Happy Friday! Bitcoin's continued slide below $100K triggered more than $1 billion worth of liquidations over the past 24 hours, but rising stablecoin inflows hint at quiet re-risking, BRN Head of Research Timothy Misir told The Block.

In today's newsletter, U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs see their second-largest daily outflows on record, Michael Saylor slams rumors Strategy sold BTC, BlackRock's BUIDL comes to BNB Chain, and more.

Meanwhile, shares in the Trump brothers' mining firm American Bitcoin whipsaw following its Q3 results and BTC reserve boost.

Let's get started!

P.S. Don't forget to check out The Funding, a biweekly rundown of crypto VC trends. It's a great read — and just like The Daily, it's free to subscribe !

Spot bitcoin ETFs see second-largest outflows on record

Spot bitcoin ETFs saw $869.9 million in net outflows on Thursday — the second-largest exit on record as risk-off sentiment swept the market.

• Grayscale's BTC led the exodus with $318.2 million worth of outflows, followed by BlackRock's IBIT and Fidelity's FBTC with $256.6 million and $119.9 million, respectively.
• The largest outflows occurred on Feb. 25 this year, when the funds witnessed a combined $1.14 billion worth of net outflows in a single day.
• Kronos Research CIO Vincent Liu said institutions are pulling back amid macro noise, calling the move a short-term momentum drag but not a structural shift.
• Meanwhile, Presto Research analyst Min Jung framed the redemptions as signalling broad de-risking from higher-beta assets driven by uncertainty around the Fed's path forward and weakening sentiment.
• Bitcoin slid below $95,000 at one point on Friday as over $1 billion in liquidations hit thin liquidity, with buyers now eyeing support in the $92K to $95K zone, Liu said.

Michael Saylor that slams rumors Strategy sold bitcoin

Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor rejected rumors that the firm sold 47,000 BTC , insisting it is buying aggressively and will disclose new purchases on Monday.

• The claim originated from a Walter Bloomberg post on X citing Arkham data, which the blockchain analytics platform later clarified likely reflected routine wallet and custodian rotations rather than sales.
• "There is no truth to this rumor," Saylor replied. "We are buying. We're buying quite a lot, actually, and we'll report our next buys on Monday morning. I think people will be pleasantly surprised," he told CNBC earlier in the day.
• Strategy added another 487 BTC last week for $50 million, bringing its total holdings to 641,692 BTC — bought for around $47.5 billion and currently worth $62 billion.

BlackRock, Binance partner on BUIDL integration and BNB Chain launch

BlackRock is extending its $2.5 billion tokenized Treasury fund BUIDL to BNB Chain as Binance begins accepting the asset as off-exchange trading collateral.

• Binance said BUIDL's integration will let institutional and advanced traders deploy capital more efficiently while retaining exposure to tokenized Treasurys.
• The exchange is wiring BUIDL into its triparty banking agents and custody partner Ceffu to meet rising demand for interest-bearing collateral from institutional clients, Binance Head of VIP & Institutional Catherine Chen added.
• BUIDL, already live across Ethereum, other major Layer 1s, and Layer 2s, joins BNB Chain amid a breakout year for the Binance-incubated blockchain, driven by Aster's perp DEX growth and expanding RWA integrations.

Ark Invest buys $15.6 million in Circle shares, adds to BitMine and Bullish positions

Cathie Wood's Ark Invest bought another $15.6 million worth of Circle shares on Thursday and added $8.9 million of BitMine and $7.3 million of Bullish stock amid the sharp market correction.

• The investment firm's ARKK, ARKW, and ARKF funds collectively acquired nearly 189,000 Circle shares amid a 5% fall in price, expanding their exposure just one day after Circle delivered strong Q3 revenue and profit growth.
• The firm also scooped up over 242,000 BitMine shares and 177,000 Bullish shares despite both names dropping nearly 10% on the day.
• Meanwhile, analysts at William Blair reiterated an outperform rating on Circle, citing its dominant position as it builds out the Circle Payments Network and new stablecoin-centric Arc blockchain.

Jack Dorsey's Cash App enables Bitcoin Lightning and stablecoin payments

Cash App, created by Jack Dorsey's firm Block, has rolled out Bitcoin Lightning payments and stablecoin transfers , expanding its product suite as fintech adoption of USD-pegged tokens grows.

• The update lets users pay Lightning invoices using USD balances without needing to hold BTC, while Square merchants can also now choose flexible BTC and USD settlement options.
• Block framed the rollout as a response to shifting consumer money habits.

Looking ahead to next week

• UK and Eurozone CPI data are due on Wednesday. The latest U.S. FOMC meeting minutes are also released on Wednesday.
• ECB President Christine Lagarde will speak on Friday.
• Arbitrum, Sei, Starknet, ZKSync, Melania Meme, ApeCoin, Kaito, and LayerZero are among the crypto projects set for token unlocks .
• Devconnect gets underway in Buenos Aires.

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