Bitcoin Drops Below $70K as Anthropic IPO Drains Liquidity, Xapo CEO Says

Bitcoin fell below $70,000 on Nov. 13, and Xapo Bank CEO Seamus Rocca attributes the decline to investors raising cash for allocations in Anthropic's initial public offering. The token traded near $68,750 early that morning after briefly touching almost $68,500 on Binance.

Anthropic's books opened to demand roughly six times the shares available, according to Bloomberg reporting cited by Reuters on Nov. 12. The proposed sale could raise up to $64.4 billion across 825 million shares priced between $70 and $78. Trading is expected to begin on Nasdaq on Nov. 19 under the ticker ANT, with a potential valuation of $1.4 trillion.

"In my view, the latest dip can be attributed to the opening of Anthropic's subscription books," Rocca said in comments supplied to crypto.news. He described investors pulling money from liquid markets to pursue the listing, calling the transaction a contender for the largest public listing in history.

Why does an IPO move Bitcoin?

Rocca's mechanism is straightforward. Investors sell what they can trade quickly, and Bitcoin sits near the top of that list. The prospect of an early gain on the listing encourages them to free up capital before allocations settle. Bankers have told prospective buyers that existing investors receive priority, potentially leaving other applicants with smaller allocations.

"We saw this exact dynamic play out during the SpaceX IPO earlier this year, when massive capital deployments temporarily drained liquidity from Bitcoin," Rocca said. "When an IPO of this scale comes to market, the lure of a quick return is strong, and liquid assets like Bitcoin are often the first source of funding when investors scramble for allocations."

The comparison has circulated in market commentary. In a Nov. 10 post, analyst Crypto Rover measured Bitcoin's pullback before SpaceX's June listing at nearly 29%, against roughly 16% ahead of Anthropic's debut at the time of his post. Rover tracked timing and size. Rocca goes further and names the funding decision as the driver.

Where is the selling concentrated?

US investment products show the outflows clearly. Farside Investors data showed $299.8 million in net withdrawals from US spot Bitcoin ETFs on Nov. 11, with BlackRock's IBIT accounting for $269.7 million. Combined withdrawals across five consecutive sessions reached approximately $1.44 billion.

CoinGlass figures put cryptocurrency liquidations at roughly $1.23 billion over 24 hours. Bitcoin positions accounted for around $677.5 million of that, including $653.5 million in longs.

Strategy faces a separate institutional event. Its MSCI index removal takes effect at the close of Nov. 30, requiring benchmark-tracking funds to adjust. The removal concerns Strategy shares and does not automatically force a sale of its Bitcoin holdings.

Rocca also cited unstable technology valuations following Jensen Huang's departure from Nvidia, alongside US inflation concerns, political uncertainty and cybersecurity incidents. He argued Bitcoin had held up well given the volume of negative developments stacked against it.

What does this change for long-term holders?

Rocca frames the pressure as capital moving between investments, not a break in Bitcoin's underlying case. His advice targets investors holding over several years, not traders chasing a new listing.

"Chasing oversubscribed listings or reacting to forced institutional flows is a day trader's game," he said. "Disciplined investors look past the distraction, using these consolidation phases as an opportunity for steady accumulation and focusing on how to put their Bitcoin wealth to work over a multi-year horizon, rather than capitulating into cash near a cyclical low."

The near-term calendar is fixed. Anthropic begins trading on Nov. 19, and Strategy's index removal settles at the close of Nov. 30 — two dates that mark when the rotation pressure Rocca describes could ease.