Extended crypto ETF outflows shows institutions disengaging: Glassnode

Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds have seen a prolonged streak of outflows, indicating that institutional investors have disengaged with crypto, says the analytics platform Glassnode.

Since early November, the 30-day simple moving average of net flows into US spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) ETFs has turned negative, Glassnode said on Tuesday.

“This persistence suggests a phase of muted participation and partial disengagement from institutional allocators, reinforcing the broader liquidity contraction across the crypto market,” it added.

Flows into crypto ETFs usually lag the spot markets for the tokens, which have been trending down since mid-October. 

The ETFs are also considered a bellwether for institutional sentiment, which has been a market driver for most of this year but seemingly turned bearish as the wider market has contracted.

Crypto ETF selling pressure is back

Coinglass said aggregate Bitcoin ETF flows have been in the red for the past four consecutive trading days. However, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has seen minor inflows over the past week. 

“Crypto ETF selling pressure is back,” the Kobeissi Letter said on Tuesday. It reported that crypto funds recorded $952 million in outflows last week, and investors have now withdrawn capital in six out of the last ten weeks.

Related: BlackRock pins Bitcoin ETF as major theme alongside T-bills, tech stocks

Despite the recent outflows, the industry-dominant BlackRock fund has seen $62.5 billion in inflows since inception, eclipsing all rival spot Bitcoin ETFs. 

IBIT beat gold for flows 

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said on Saturday that IBIT is the only ETF on  Bloomberg’s “2025 Flow Leaderboard” with a negative return for the year.

“The real takeaway is that it was sixth place despite the negative return,” he added.

Balchunas said that BlackRock’s flagship Bitcoin fund even took in more than the SPDR Gold Shares fund (GLD), which was up 64%.

“That’s a really good sign long term IMO. If you can do $25 billion in a bad year, imagine the flow potential in a good year.”

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