Bitcoin, Ethereum ETF Investments Flip Negative for 2026 as Crypto Funds Shed $1.7B

Digital asset investment products saw a second consecutive week of outflows last week, totaling $1.7 billion and leaving net year-to-date flows at a global outflow of about $1 billion, according to CoinShares.

The U.S. accounted for the vast majority of redemptions, with $1.65 billion in outflows. Canada and Sweden also posted withdrawals of $37.3 million and $18.9 million, respectively. Switzerland and Germany registered modest inflows of $11.0 million and $4.3 million.

Outflows were broad-based across assets. Bitcoin products saw $1.32 billion in weekly withdrawals, while Ethereum products lost $308 million. Previously favored altcoins also turned negative, with XRP and Solana seeing outflows of $43.7 million and $31.7 million. Short-Bitcoin products, however, recorded $14.5 million in inflows, lifting year-to-date assets under management by 8.1%.

“We believe this reflects a combination of factors, including the appointment of a more hawkish U.S. Federal Reserve Chair, continued whale selling associated with the four-year cycle, and heightened geopolitical volatility,” said James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, in the report.

“Since the price highs in October 2025, we have seen total assets under management fall by $73 billion.”

The fund flows come amid a sharp market downturn. Bitcoin is currently trading around $78,867, down 9.9% over the past seven days and well below its January high of $97,511, according to CoinGecko data. Ethereum is trading near $2,370, down more than 18% over the past week and roughly 52% below its all-time high.

Change at the Fed

The latest moves follow developments at the Federal Reserve. On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump nominated former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh to succeed Jerome Powell as chair of the central bank.

Warsh’s views on cryptocurrency have been mixed. In a 2022 opinion essay, he described many private crypto projects as “fraudulent” and argued that cryptocurrency was “software, not money.” More recently, he has struck a more conciliatory tone, saying in a 2025 interview that Bitcoin “does not make me nervous” and can serve as a check on policymakers.

Thomas Perfumo, global economist at Kraken, said markets may be overstating how hawkish a Warsh-led Fed would be. “While some characterize Warsh as a hawk, his underlying policy bias on interest rates remains dovish,” Perfumo told Decrypt, pointing to CME Fed Funds Futures showing little change in expectations for rate cuts later in 2026.

“Where markets may be disappointed is in Warsh’s more skeptical posture on balance sheet expansion through measures such as quantitative easing,” he added. “The nomination largely reinforces the status quo: the Fed is likely to continue to cut rates this year, but broader market liquidity is expected to stabilize rather than meaningfully expand.”

In addition to the market reaction to his nomination, Warsh’s ascension to the Federal Reserve has been further overshadowed by another release of documents related to the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. He and his wife Jane Lauder, the billionaire heiress whose grandparents founded Estée Lauder, both appeared in name appears in the latest release on a guest list for a Christmas party in the Caribbean in 2010, two years after Epstein was convicted for soliciting a child for prostitution.