Spot Bitcoin ETF Outflows Surpass $1.1B in 7-Day Streak

Fidelity's FBTC led the sell-off that helped send bitcoin's price down 6.5% on Monday.

Spot bitcoin ETFs have skidded to more than $1.1 billion in outflows over a seven-day streak that has coincided with a sharp decline in the asset upon which it is based. 

The Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) led the 11 funds with nearly $500 million in outflows over this stretch, losing a large chunk of the cash that came in earlier in June and late May, according to data from U.K. asset manager Farside Investors. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) lost $357 million in outflows over the same period, the second most. The record-setting BlackRock Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) generated just $20 million in inflows, a fraction of its record-setting totals. 

The slump started earlier in June as miners who verify transactions on the blockchain sold bitcoin to improve their balance sheets and amid some investor profit taking. A 6.5% dip in the asset's price to $58,900 on Monday stemmed at least partly from a sell-off of riskier assets, the same market sentiment in which AI chip maker Nvidia lost $500 billion in market value. 

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"Yesterday, crypto got hit with some risk asset jitters," noted analyst Noelle Acheson in her Crypto is Macro Now newsletter. 

Bitcoin had more recently rallied to trade above $61,500, still far off its all-time high above $73,000 set in March.

$174M in Outflows Monday

The 11 spot bitcoin funds finished with over $174 million in outflows on Monday, the fifth highest daily total for June, a month that started promisingly after a flurry of encouraging inflation data and growing optimism about the prospects of a second spot crypto ETF based on ether (ether is the token of the Ethereum blockchain and second largest digital asset by market value behind bitcoin). Those proposed funds may receive a greenlight from the Securities and Exchange Commission by July 2, according to Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas. 

Yet investors remain wary of wider macroeconomic uncertainties, wrote Strahinja Savic, head of data and analytics at Toronto-based crypto firm FRNT Financial, in a Telegram message to etf.com. Savic noted the lack of consensus about U.S. monetary policy, major elections in France, the U.K. and U.S., wars in Ukraine and Gaza and "other global flashpoints contributing to geopolitical angst."

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"It's no surprise to see traders wanting to profit here, manage risk, considering the lack of clarity on so many key issues," Savic wrote. "Given bitcoin's liquidity, and 24/7/365 availability to manage positions, it is often the first asset traders will sell to manage risk."