Institutions become ‘scared’ and inflows into Bitcoin ETFs plummet

In recent trading days, nine of the eleven new spot Bitcoin ETFs launched have recorded negative flow, reflecting a cautious mood among institutional investors.

According to preliminary data from Farside Investors, only Grayscale and BlackRock showed positive flows on April 12th and 15th. Meanwhile, all other funds remained inactive.

Grayscale’s continued disbursement of GBTC funds has also resulted in a net negative balance over the past two trading days. Crypto asset investment products in general have also seen an outflow of funds, recording a loss of US$126 million in the last week, according to CoinShares.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs cool

While BlackRock’s industry-leading IBIT fund continues to keep the cryptocurrency ETF markets hot with inflows, these are slowing. On April 15, IBIT recorded an inflow of US$73.4 million, the fourth double-digit inflow this month.

However, this was not enough to offset the $110 million outflow from GBTC, resulting in a net negative balance of $36.7 million for all Bitcoin ETFs on the last day.

Grayscale’s flagship fund has already lost 308,379 BTC, valued at around $19 billion at current prices, since its conversion to a spot ETF in mid-January.

Although demand for ETFs has stagnated in recent weeks, on-chain accumulation remains active, as noted by CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju.

The cryptocurrency market continues to correct, with the total market value decreasing another 3.8% on the day, reaching the lowest level since the end of February, totaling US$2.5 trillion.

Bitcoin fell another 1.8% to $63,000 in the last 24 hours, while Ethereum fell 2% to $3,100. Many altcoins such as Solana (SOL) and Toncoin (TON) also recorded significant drops of 8% and 7% respectively. The biggest drop, however, was in memecoins, which registered a drop of up to 25%.