Bitcoin ETF investors pulled money for a second straight week, and one fund did most of the work. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs shed a net $228.6 million in the week ending Friday, according to Decrypt, citing SoSoValue data, after a $681.1 million exit the week before. Over the two weeks, close to $910 million left the funds, and BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) accounted for most of the latest week’s redemptions.
Key Takeaways
- U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs lost $228.6 million for the week, following a $681.1 million drain the prior week, for a two-week total near $910 million.
- BlackRock’s IBIT shed $165.4 million for the week ending October 16, about 72% of the period’s $228 million-plus outflow, according to 247 Wall St.
- Wednesday’s $261.4 million redemption was the week’s worst session, coinciding with a hotter-than-forecast September CPI reading of 3.7% year over year.
- Bitcoin briefly dipped below $80,000 on Thursday, breaching the roughly $82,300 average cost basis of ETF holders, and nearly $950 million in leveraged positions were liquidated in 24 hours.
- October’s net flow stands at negative $615 million, though cumulative inflows since the funds’ January 2024 launch remain at $57.3 billion.
A Choppy Week of Redemptions
Outflows beat inflows on three of five trading days. Tuesday brought a $175.7 million inflow, but Wednesday erased it with $261.4 million in redemptions, the week’s worst session, per Decrypt’s tracker. Thursday added a modest $5.1 million inflow before selling resumed Friday with an $82.4 million exit. IBIT alone accounted for $71.8 million of that Friday total, according to 247 Wall St.
IBIT Drives the Outflow
IBIT’s $165.4 million weekly outflow made up roughly 72% of the week’s total withdrawals, 247 Wall St reported, citing figures for the week ending October 16. Other funds posted smaller losses: Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) fell $60.2 million, Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust dropped $7.6 million, and Invesco Galaxy’s Bitcoin ETF lost $4.1 million. Not every fund was selling. Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin Trust took in $6.7 million, and the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF added $2.2 million, per the same report.
247 Wall St frames the outflow as small against the funds’ size: the week’s $228.4 million exit equaled about one-fifth of one percent of the $104.3 billion in total net assets the ETFs held as of October 16, per SoSoValue. The outlet also notes that on September 21, the funds pulled in roughly $999 million in a single day, nearly four times the entire week’s net withdrawal.
Rate Bets Meet a Broken Cost Basis
Wednesday’s heavy selling tracked a hot inflation print. The consumer price index showed September prices up 3.7% year over year, above the 3.6% forecast, Decrypt reported. A hotter-than-expected producer price reading followed Thursday, reviving bets on another Federal Reserve rate hike. Higher rates make a near-risk-free Treasury yield around 5% a tougher competitor for Bitcoin, and they raise borrowing costs for leveraged traders.
Bitcoin briefly slipped below $80,000 on Thursday, and nearly $950 million in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated over 24 hours, about 90% of them bullish longs, according to CoinGlass data cited by Decrypt. The drop pushed Bitcoin below the average ETF holder’s estimated cost basis near $82,300, Nexo analyst Iliya Kalchev told Decrypt. Bitcoin closed Friday near $81,590, down from about $82,337 a week earlier, per Decrypt’s tracker.
October’s Flow Deficit
The two red weeks have pulled October into negative territory. The month opened with roughly $293 million in inflows but has since swung to a net $615 million outflow, Decrypt’s tracker shows. The slide started in earnest on October 7, when a $484.9 million exit marked the funds’ worst day since June. Ethereum and Solana ETFs have also posted outflows this month, per Decrypt.
Outlets differ on how to read the stretch. TradingSignal ties the outflows to Bitcoin trading rangebound near $82,500 and frames the question as whether institutional buyers are pausing or pulling back for longer. 247 Wall St argues the picture is less dire, pointing to IBIT’s outsized share of the outflow and the small size of the withdrawal relative to the funds’ $104.3 billion in assets, and noting BlackRock reported $79.6 billion in assets on its broader digital-assets platform in its third-quarter results. DigitalToday corroborates the core figures, reporting the same $910 million two-week total and $615 million October deficit to South Korean readers.
Despite the recent exits, the funds’ cumulative net inflows since their January 2024 launch stand at $57.3 billion, according to Decrypt. Total net assets were put at $104.29 billion by SoSoValue and $100.2 billion by Decrypt’s own tracker as of Friday.
Whether the outflows mark a pause ahead of year-end buying or a longer cooling-off period, as TradingSignal frames it, depends on data not yet in hand: whether Bitcoin can reclaim the roughly $82,300 cost basis that ETF holders are now underwater on, and whether the next inflation and rate signals ease or extend the pressure that drove this stretch.
