(March 19): Bitcoin extended a retreat as investors digested a record daily outflow from the world’s biggest exchange-traded fund (ETFs) for the token as well as scaled-back expectations for Federal Reserve (Fed) interest rate cuts.

The largest digital asset shed about 3% to trade at US$65,380 (RM309,312.78) as of 1pm Tuesday in Singapore. Other major tokens such as Ether, Solana and meme-crowd favourite Dogecoin also nursed losses.

The US$25 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, or GBTC, posted a US$643 million outflow on Monday, the most since it converted into an ETF on Jan 11, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Earlier, strong demand for nine new spot-bitcoin ETFs that went live at the same time had more than made up for a spate of GBTC exits.

But those flows into products from titans such as Fidelity Investments and BlackRock Inc are also cooling, and the batch of 10 ETFs as a whole saw a net outflow of US$154 million on March 18.

QCP Capital, a crypto trading firm based in Singapore, wrote in a note on Tuesday that it would be “closely tracking the aggregate ETF flow numbers today”, adding that a “net negative would be a distinctly bearish signal”.

Since they began trading, the ETFs overall have attracted a net of US$12 billion. Investor interest propelled bitcoin to an all-time peak of US$73,798 last week. The crypto bellwether has since wobbled as the initial pulse of demand for the products fizzles amid warnings about bubble-like traits in some assets.

Risks from monetary policy are among the wild cards. Persistent inflationary pressures are curbing expectations for looser Fed settings, while Japan just drew the curtain on the most aggressive monetary stimulus programme in modern history, scrapping the world’s last negative interest rate.

GBTC’s manager Grayscale Investments LLC intends to launch a clone of the fund as it vies with rivals offering cheaper products. Fees are expected to be lower than for GBTC, a person familiar with the matter earlier told Bloomberg.