Investors have withdrawn approximately $168 million from nine U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Monday.
Over the last two days, net outflows from these ETFs have reached a staggering $405 million, according to data from Farside Investors.
In contrast, spot Ethereum ETFs experienced net inflows totaling nearly $49 million during the same period.
Grayscale’s GBTC and Fidelity’s FBTC Lead Withdrawals
The most notable outflows were from Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF (GBTC) and Fidelity’s Bitcoin fund (FBTC), with each fund witnessing withdrawals of about $69 million.
Interestingly, Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust (BTC), a low-cost alternative to GBTC, saw the highest daily inflows, attracting almost $29 million.
Bitwise’s Bitcoin ETF (BITB) and Valkyrie’s Bitcoin fund (BRRR) also recorded gains, each pulling in approximately $6 million.
Other Bitcoin ETFs, such as BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), reported no flows.
On the trading front, U.S. Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs saw a combined trading volume of nearly $6 billion on Monday, with spot Bitcoin ETFs alone accounting for over $5 billion.
IBIT and FBTC led this trading activity.
Spot Ethereum ETFs, led by Grayscale’s Ethereum ETF and BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA), contributed around $715 million to the total volume.
Eric Balchunas, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg, described the high trading volume during a market downturn as a reliable indicator of market fear.
He emphasized that deep liquidity during such times is valuable to traders and institutions, suggesting long-term benefits for ETFs.
Bitcoin ETFs have traded about $2.5b so far, a lot for 10:45am, but not too crazy (full history below). If you bitcoin bull you actually DONT want to see crazy volume today as ETF volume on bad days is a pretty reliable measure of fear. On flip, deep liquidity on bad days is part… pic.twitter.com/TOQRjyriqp
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) August 5, 2024
BlackRock’s ETH ETF Sees Inflows
Meanwhile, BlackRock’s ETHA recorded $47 million in net inflows on August 5, followed by VanEck’s and Fidelity’s Ethereum ETFs, which collectively attracted nearly $33 million.
Bitwise’s Ethereum fund and Grayscale’s Ethereum Mini Trust also reported gains on the same day.
However, the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) faced significant outflows, with nearly $47 million withdrawn, marking the lowest outflow since its conversion to an ETF.
Over ten trading days, the fund saw outflows exceeding $2.1 billion.
Despite this, investors still hold approximately 234 million ETHE shares, now valued at around $4.7 billion, according to Grayscale’s latest updates.
The recent crypto market crash, which began on August 4, was triggered by Jump Trading’s substantial transfer of Ether to exchanges, leading to a sharp correction across the crypto markets.
Bitcoin briefly dipped below $50,000 at the start of U.S. trading hours on August 5, while Ethereum saw a more than 20% drop in its value within a day.
As of the latest updates, Bitcoin has partially recovered to around $54,000, and Ethereum has rebounded by 6%, trading at over $2,400, as per CoinGecko’s data.
As reported, digital asset investment products saw outflows amounting to $528 million last week, marking the first downturn in four weeks.
The exodus is believed to be a response to mounting concerns over a potential recession in the United States, compounded by geopolitical uncertainties and consequent widespread liquidations across various asset classes.
For one, the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) decision to raise interest rates for the first time in 17 years due to concerns over the Yen’s purchasing power decline against the US Dollar has triggered apprehension within risk-on asset markets, prompting widespread sell-offs.
