ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF Records Highest Outflows Since August

ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) recorded $275.2 million in outflows on Thursday, marking its steepest single-day capital flight since August 1, when the fund shed $327.9 million.

The withdrawal contributed to a brutal Thursday across Bitcoin ETFs, which collectively bled $530.9 million, according to Farside Investors data.

BlackRock’s IBIT lost $29.5 million, Fidelity’s FBTC dropped $132 million, and Grayscale’s GBTC shed $45 million, pointing to a broad institutional retreat from Bitcoin exposure.

The week proved punishing for Bitcoin products overall, with $858.7 million in net outflows and only Tuesday breaking the exodus with a single day of inflows.

The exodus comes as markets continue to absorb shocks from President Donald Trump’s 100% tariff announcement on China last Friday, which triggered the largest liquidation event in crypto history with $19 billion in leveraged positions wiped out within 24 hours.

China on Thursday nodded openness to trade talks while accusing the U.S. of creating “panic” over Beijing’s rare earth export controls, offering a potential off-ramp as both nations work toward a planned meeting between Trump and President Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month.

Markets turn risk-off

“There is a short-medium term shift, especially post the comments on last Friday towards a more risk-off state, especially given market exuberance across risk assets and uncorrelated assets over the last few months,” Ganesh Mahidhar, Investment Professional at Further Ventures, told Decrypt.

The combination of the Ethereum-based USDe stablecoin’s depeg on Friday and a social media-driven boycott movement against Binance has pushed concerns about systemic risk back into focus, particularly at this stage of the post-halving Bitcoin cycle, he added.

Despite managing just 50,000 BTC versus BlackRock’s 800,000 and Fidelity’s 210,000, ARKB “is generally one of the funds leading the charge” on outflow days, Sean Dawson, Head of Research at Derive, told Decrypt, adding how “ARK’s holdings have held consistently in the 40-50K BTC since March 2024.”

ARK’s fund sees “investors more frequently rotate in and out of BTC as a speculative asset” compared to BlackRock and Fidelity’s vehicles, which house longer-term holders, he said.

Whether the Bitcoin ETF outflow streak continues depends on upcoming catalysts, particularly the Federal Reserve’s October 29 FOMC meeting and the ongoing Q3 earnings season, Mahidhar said.

“Market exuberance needs to be supported by revenue and cash flow growth in U.S. markets — if that happens and the FOMC meeting goes well, we may see a staunching in the bleed out,” he noted.

Bitcoin is trading at $104,629, down 6.3% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data, still nursing losses from the tariff-triggered crash.