Opinion: The recent decline in the crypto market was mainly driven by retail investors selling off Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs.

According to Odaily Planet Daily, JPMorgan analysts stated that the recent correction in the crypto market—especially after Bitcoin fell below the bank's estimated production cost/support level of $94,000—was primarily driven by retail investors selling Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs, rather than by native crypto traders.

"While the market correction in October was driven by significant deleveraging by crypto-native investors (particularly in perpetual contracts), this deleveraging in perpetual contracts appears to have stabilized in November," wrote Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, Managing Director at JPMorgan Chase, and his team in a report on Wednesday. "Conversely, the main force driving the continued crypto market correction in November was non-crypto investors, particularly retail investors who entered the crypto market through Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs."

Analysts point out that retail investors have withdrawn approximately $4 billion from Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs so far this month, exceeding the record net outflows of February. This behavior contrasts sharply with retail investor flows in the stock market. Retail investors have already poured approximately $96 billion into equity ETFs (including leveraged products) in November—if this pace continues until the end of the month, the total will approach $160 billion, comparable to levels seen in September and October.

They pointed out that retail investors have previously exhibited similar "divergent behavior": aggressively buying stocks on the one hand, while selling crypto ETFs in only a few months this year (February, March, and now November). This shows that retail investors still view crypto assets and stocks as two separate asset baskets, even though both are risky assets.

AI