In brief
- The price of Bitcoin and Ethereum has plunged this week.
- U.S. investors have been cashing out of the spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.
- Since October 29, a total of $2.6 billion has left the crypto investment vehicles.
Investors have cashed out a combined $2.6 billion from U.S. Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds over the past week, marking one of the largest redemption periods in the funds' history.
The more than $1.9 billion that left the Bitcoin funds and $718.9 million pulled out of their Ethereum counterparts since October 29, according to data from Farside Investors, has helped put downwards pressure on the two largest cryptocurrencies by market value.
On Tuesday, Bitcoin dropped below $100,000 for the first time since May. BTC was recently trading at slightly over $103,428, up 2.6% on the day but still about 18% below its October record of $126,080, CoinGecko data shows.
Ethereum was changing hands for $3,439, a more than 5% 24-hour jump, although it has plummeted by 13% over the past week.
The second-biggest digital coin by market capitalization has struggled to trade near the record it touched in August of $4,946.
Investors have largely veered away from crypto and other risk-on assets since October amid worries over U.S. President Donald Trump's escalation of his trade war against China, the ongoing government shutdown, low market liquidity, and diminishing prospects of a third U.S. interest rate cut before year's end.
Despite Trump's pro-crypto rhetoric and policy, Bitcoin has suffered shocks—along with tech stocks in recent months, a result of ongoing macro uncertainties.
In February, the spot BTC ETFs had their longest and most painful losing streak, with investors pulling out over $2.2 billion over eight consecutive days following the president's tariff announcements.
Approved by the SEC last year, the BTC and ETH ETFs allow traditional investors and even institutions to buy exposure to the cryptocurrencies via funds that trade on stock exchanges.
Financial advisor Ric Edelman—who heads the Digital Assets Council of Financial Advisors—struck an upbeat note, highlighting the huge inflows both categories of funds have generated in their brief histories. The Bitcoin ETFs had the most successful debut in the history of ETFs following their January 2024 approval, and now manage a total of $145.4 billion in assets.
"Looking at dollar flows distorts the picture," Edelman told Decrypt. "The Bitcoin ETFs have collected more than $100 billion in assets, so while $2 billion in outflows sounds like a lot, it's only 2%—hardly noteworthy."
He added: "What is noteworthy is that, despite these outflows, Bitcoin's price hasn't crashed. This is because of the strong institutional inflows that are simultaneously occurring. This wouldn't have been the case 10, five or even two years ago, and shows the continuing maturity of this asset class."