Bitcoin experienced a heavy drop last night. On December 16, BTC broke below the $86,000 support level and briefly touched around $85,500. Just a week ago, the price plummeted from above $90,000, and market sentiment instantly reversed.

As of press time, Bitcoin is quoted at $86,203, with an intraday decline of nearly 4%. To summarize the current situation in one sentence: risk assets are cooling off across the board, and Bitcoin cannot remain immune.

Who is driving this decline? The key word is two characters: selling.

Data shows that on December 15, there was a concentrated outflow from Bitcoin spot ETFs, with a net outflow of $357 million. The flagship products of BlackRock and Fidelity led the sell-off. This signals that institutional funds are temporarily hedging risk and pulling back at least for now.

Where did the outflowed money go? The answer is quite stark—gold.

While Bitcoin is falling, gold is celebrating. On December 16, gold prices surged to $4,325 per ounce, hitting a nearly 7-week high. The reason seems simple yet very realistic: global central banks (especially China, India, and others) continue to increase their gold holdings, Middle Eastern geopolitical tensions are heating up, and risk aversion is clearly rising. Whenever the market shows signs of turbulence, funds instinctively flow into this "oldest safe haven," gold has always been the first choice.

This wave of strength in gold this year essentially reflects a decline in global risk appetite and a re-pricing of safe assets.