Bitcoin spot ETFs see $203M net outflows, Ethereum ETFs lose $432M

US spot crypto ETFs had a week investors would probably like to forget. Bitcoin spot ETFs posted $203 million in net outflows last week, while Ethereum spot ETFs lost $432 million.

The Ethereum figure is the one worth staring at. Ether funds bled more than twice as much as their Bitcoin counterparts, even though the Bitcoin products are far larger.

A heavy week inside a heavy month

For Bitcoin ETFs, total October outflows were approaching $516 million. That is real money, though it was spread across a month of uneven trading rather than one dramatic selloff.

Ethereum’s October looked considerably worse. Ether ETFs recorded more than $1.6 billion in outflows for the month. Taken together, monthly outflows across both asset classes cleared $1 billion.

The most telling detail is the streak. Ethereum ETFs logged up to 23 consecutive days of outflows in October, the longest such run for the products.

Bitcoin’s flows, by contrast, were more mixed. Money moved in and out on different days rather than draining in one direction.

The scoreboard since launch

US spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in January 2024. Since then, they have pulled in about $57 billion in net inflows. Total assets in those Bitcoin funds now sit at around $98 to $99 billion.

Ethereum’s ETFs debuted later, in July 2024. They have collected somewhere around $12 to $14 billion in cumulative inflows since then.

The biggest names in traditional asset management are central to all of this. BlackRock and Fidelity run some of the largest products in the category. Their funds frequently appear to drive the direction of daily flows, so a shift in demand at either issuer can swing the overall tally on a given day.

For anyone new to the plumbing, here is how it works. A spot ETF holds the actual underlying asset, Bitcoin or Ether, on behalf of shareholders. When investors redeem shares on net, the fund’s holdings shrink. Flow data is effectively a public receipt showing whether institutional and retail money is arriving or leaving.

What the split between Bitcoin and Ether tells us

Bitcoin ETFs have a long track record of absorbing capital, and even in a soft month their flows stayed mixed rather than one-directional. Ethereum is a different story. A record outflow streak plus a monthly total above $1.6 billion points to a sustained cooling in investor appetite for Ether relative to Bitcoin. When the smaller product loses more money in absolute terms than the larger one, that is a statement about preference, not just market conditions.

Bitcoin ETFs still hold roughly $98 to $99 billion in assets and $57 billion in net inflows since launch. Ether ETFs still carry billions in cumulative inflows.

Issuer-level data will be the place to look. Movements at BlackRock and Fidelity products have tended to set the tone for daily totals, so a turn in either direction there would likely show up quickly in the aggregate numbers.