Bitcoin ETF snapshot: Outflows strike last week as BTC price uptrend stalls
The US spot bitcoin fund category has notched negative net flows over the course of a week just three times since coming to market in January
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US spot bitcoin ETFs saw net outflows last week, an occurrence seen just twice before over such a span since such funds launched three months ago.
The 11-fund category bled $83 million in assets from April 8 to April 12, according to BitMEX Research data — down from net inflows of $485 million the week prior.
Spot bitcoin ETFs have collectively welcomed $12.5 billion in positive flows to their coffers since Jan. 11.
The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC) has been the only US BTC fund to see consistent outflows, watching $767 million leave last week, the data shows.
Asset-gathering leaders — BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) — were not able to fully offset the GBTC negative net flows, reeling in $487 million and $90 million, respectively.
Read more: BlackRock bitcoin fund accounts for 20% of the firm’s Q1 ETF net inflows
The bitcoin fund segment saw just two weeks of net outflows prior to last week — losing $417 million in assets from Jan. 22 to Jan. 26 and hemorrhaging $888 million from March 18 to March 22.
Net inflows in one week peaked at $2.5 billion for the category from March 11 to March 15.
The latest outflows came during a week in which bitcoin’s price fell roughly 5% to $65,650 by Friday. It dipped below $62,000 on Saturday.
Net money coming out of the US spot bitcoin ETFs signals “increased profit-taking and investor caution” following the strong uptrend over the last two quarters, Fineqia research analyst Matteo Greco wrote in a Monday research note.
Trading volumes into the funds were about average last week, Greco noted, standing at about $3.2 billion per day.
Read more: Why BTC’s record monthly growth streak could be in jeopardy
James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, added in a Monday report that investors are seemingly hesitant since the positive price momentum has stalled.
Bitcoin’s price hit an all-time high above $73,500 on March 14 and was above $72,000 as recently as April 8. The asset’s price hovered around $66,200 at 7:30 am ET on Monday, down about 4.5% from a week ago.
“ETP [and] ETF activity dropped relative to the overall market, from 40% of total volumes on trusted exchanges over the last month to 31% last week, demonstrating this caution amongst investors,” Butterfill wrote.
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