Spot bitcoin ETFs notch five straight weeks of outflows for first time since March 2025

U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds posted their fifth consecutive week of net outflows, a streak not seen since the tariff shock-driven sell-off of early 2025, as institutional appetite for the funds continued to cool alongside a broader crypto drawdown.

The 12 spot bitcoin ETFs shed approximately $316 million during the week ended Feb. 20, a four-day trading week due to the Presidents’ Day holiday on Monday, per SoSoValue data. The first three sessions of the week were all negative, with outflows of roughly $105 million on Tuesday, $133 million on Wednesday and $166 million on Thursday.

Friday provided a reprieve, with $88 million flowing back into the products, led by BlackRock’s IBIT at $64.5 million and Fidelity’s FBTC at $23.6 million. But the late-week bounce was not enough to offset the earlier selling, leaving the funds in the red for a fifth straight week.

A streak not seen in nearly one year

The five-week run of outflows, which began the week of Jan. 20, has now erased approximately $3.8 billion from the bitcoin ETF complex. The last time the funds experienced a comparable losing streak was in February and March of last year, when five consecutive weeks of redemptions totaling roughly $5.4 billion coincided with President Donald Trump’s surprise tariff announcements and a steep drawdown in risk assets.

The current streak, while matching that period in duration, has been less severe in magnitude. The two heaviest outflow weeks came in late January, when the funds shed $1.33 billion and $1.49 billion in back-to-back weeks, respectively. The three most recent weeks have been more moderate, each in the $316-$360 million range.

Despite the persistent outflows, the funds’ structural footprint remains large. Total cumulative net inflows since the products launched in January 2024 stand at approximately $54 billion, and aggregate net assets sit at roughly $85.3 billion, per SoSoValue.

The continued outflows come as bitcoin trades around $68,600, down more than 20% year-to-date, according to The Block’s Bitcoin Price page. The drawdown has left bitcoin below what Glassnode identifies as the “True Market Mean” near $79,000, a level the on-chain analytics firm described this week as a dividing line between expansion and compression phases.

“Bulls will be wanting to see [a BTC price of $65,000] hold as a floor,” 21shares head of macro Stephen Coltman said, in response to December’s inflation data release. “Conversely, a sustained move above 70k would indicate the recent selling may have exhausted itself.”

ETH outflows persist; SOL and XRP stay positive

Spot ether ETFs mirrored bitcoin’s weakness, recording approximately $123 million in net outflows for the week, per SoSoValue. That marks ether’s own fifth consecutive week of outflows, bringing the five-week total to roughly $1.39 billion.

In contrast, spot Solana ETFs recorded approximately $14.3 million in net inflows for the week, extending a pattern that has seen the newer altcoin products attract consistent inflows even as bitcoin and ether funds bleed. Bitwise’s BSOL fund continues to lead the SOL ETF category by a wide margin in terms of assets under management.

Spot XRP ETFs posted a marginal $1.8 million in net inflows, a quiet week for the products that have generally drawn steady demand since their November launch.

The divergence between the two camps underscores a theme that has persisted for weeks: capital is rotating within crypto ETFs rather than exiting the ecosystem entirely. As The Block reported earlier this month, analysts at BRN described the current environment as one of “fatigue, not panic,” with crowded short positioning and compressed volatility raising the prospect of a sharp move in either direction.