U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $635 million in net outflows on Wednesday, the largest single-day redemption since January 29, according to SoSoValue data. The exit pushed cumulative net inflows since the January 2024 launch down to $58.5 billion from $59.76 billion a week earlier, erasing weeks of accumulated demand in five trading sessions.
Fidelity’s FBTC led the losses with $284.7 million in redemptions, followed by Ark 21Shares’ ARKB at $177.1 million, BlackRock’s IBIT at $133.2 million, and Bitwise’s BITB at $35.4 million, per Farside Investors. The concentration mirrors the asymmetry that drove the inflow phase: the same handful of issuers that absorbed most of April’s $1.97 billion monthly intake are now absorbing most of the exit pressure.
Macro is doing the work. Tuesday’s CPI print came in at 3.8% year-over-year, the hottest reading in nearly three years and above the 3.7% consensus. Wednesday’s producer price index followed with +1.4% month-over-month against a 0.5% forecast. The back-to-back inflation surprises compressed expectations for Federal Reserve easing, and the 10-year Treasury yield climbed near 4.5%, CoinDesk reported. BTC traded around $79,400 on Thursday, down roughly 2% on the day and about 37% below October’s record above $126,000.
The signal hidden in the data is the changing relationship between flows and price. Glassnode’s 7-day moving average of spot ETF netflows dropped to negative $88 million per day, the weakest reading since mid-February. The firm noted in a Thursday post that February’s outflows occurred into price weakness, while this wave is selling into strength — institutional participants appear to be using the recovery rally above $80,000 as an exit rather than panic-selling. The estimated ETF holder cost basis sits near $82,100, providing a structural ceiling on positioning.
The broader ETF complex is following. Ethereum ETFs added $36 million in outflows, extending a three-session losing streak to nearly $184 million in withdrawals. Two cautions for readers. First, the 90-day Pearson correlation between BTC daily returns and ETF flow changes has dropped to 0.16 — statistically near zero, against a February peak of 0.68 — so daily flow prints carry less directional information than they did six months ago. Second, large single-session redemptions still matter at the margin, particularly when they cluster ahead of catalysts like the Senate Banking Committee’s CLARITY Act vote scheduled for Thursday morning.
