US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) continued a modest rebound after pulling in $371 million in net inflows last Friday, signaling that institutional demand may be finding its footing following weeks of heavy selling.
Data from SoSoValue and CoinGecko shows spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded an additional $145 million in inflows on Monday, as Bitcoin traded around the $70,000 mark.
While these inflows have not yet made up for last week’s $318 million in outflows or the $1.9 billion in year-to-date redemptions, the pace of withdrawals has slowed—an early sign of a possible trend reversal for crypto investment products, according to CoinShares.
“Outflows slowed sharply to $187 million despite significant price pressure, and historically this deceleration in flows has signaled a potential inflection point,” said CoinShares head of research James Butterfill in a Monday update.
Early Bitcoin holders remain steady
Despite Bitcoin’s growing institutional adoption, early investors have not been pushed out of the market, according to a senior executive at asset manager Bitwise. This comes even as ETFs experienced sizable outflows during the recent sell-off that dragged BTC back toward its October 2024 price levels.
Bernstein analysts characterized the pullback as the “weakest bear case” in Bitcoin’s history, pointing to the lack of major industry failures that typically accompany deeper market stress.
With no single clear catalyst behind the decline, some observers have attributed the volatility to Bitcoin’s increasing integration with traditional finance through ETFs, along with concerns that greater financialization could dilute the asset’s scarcity narrative.
Still, that transition has not significantly discouraged early adopters, according to Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan, speaking to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas.
Hougan noted that a “cypherpunk, libertarian OG core” of Bitcoin supporters may be uneasy with the expanding role of major asset managers like BlackRock, but he characterized that group as a “shrinking minority.”
Hougan said many early investors are instead locking in partial profits after substantial gains, rather than leaving the market entirely, noting that most continue to hold positions even as new institutional players enter the space.
“They invested a few thousand dollars and ended up with millions,” Hougan said, adding:
“The vast majority are still in it, and they’re being augmented by new institutional investors. I think the story that most of OG crypto is giving up on the space just doesn’t align with the people that we talk to with the investors that are working with Bitwise.”
Alongside the rebound in Bitcoin ETFs, spot altcoin ETFs also saw inflows on Monday, with Ether attracting $57 million and XRP recording $6.3 million, according to data from SoSoValue.
