Bitcoin slid to multi-week lows on Friday, settling near $73,500 as a wave of record ETF redemptions and a broad pullback from risk assets knocked the price down roughly 4% from its weekly open above $77,000. The decline marks the sharpest single-week drop in over a month and has traders watching whether the selling pressure has room to run.
ETF redemptions hit a record
The trigger was unmistakable: exchange-traded fund investors pulled money out at a pace never seen before. The exact dollar figure wasn't disclosed, but the scale was enough to overwhelm buying interest and send the price sliding through the week. It's a stark reversal from the steady inflows that had propped up Bitcoin in prior months.
AI forecasts diverge
Not everyone is bearish. Grok, an AI model, targets a Bitcoin price of $145,000 — nearly double Friday's level. It's one of 13 AI models that produced price paths for Bitcoin through the end of 2026. The range among them is wide, and none of the models are public about their exact assumptions. The divergence underscores the uncertainty around where the market goes from here.
Broader market mood sours
Bitcoin wasn't alone. The pullback hit across risk assets this week, with equities and other cryptocurrencies also seeing red. For Bitcoin, the question is whether the ETF outflows are a one-time shakeout or the start of a deeper trend. The coming weeks will test whether buyers step back in at these levels.
For now, the AI models' differing predictions serve as a reminder: even machines can't agree on where Bitcoin ends the year.
