Institutional Investors Pulled $549M From Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum ETFs Last Week

Update 22:34 UTC: On the latest count, October 16 saw $82.4 million leave Bitcoin (BTC) spot ETFs, of which BlackRock's IBIT accounted for $71.8 million, about 87% of the day's total, and Fidelity's FBTC $10.6 million, while the remaining ten products printed flat.

$549M Left US Spot Crypto ETFs Last Week

Roughly $549 million left US spot crypto ETFs last week, with the weekly flow tally compiled by analytics firm SoSoValue splitting the total into about $229 million from wrappers holding Bitcoin (BTC) and about $320 million from Ethereum (ETH) funds. The figure came in well under the $1.22 billion redeemed the week before, a drop of roughly 55%, but the streak persists: Bitcoin funds have now posted two consecutive weeks of net outflows and Ethereum funds three. Net flows in these wrappers are the difference between the daily creations and redemptions issuers report, so the print captures fund-level institutional positioning directly rather than exchange trading. Institutional selling is what the numbers point to, since redemptions at fund level come from large holders, and neither flagship wrapper has managed a positive weekly print in this run. The breadth matters too: a weekly figure of this size appears to reflect redemption activity spread across the product lineup rather than one issuer's exit. No relief appeared in the altcoin ETFs either: Solana funds shed about $26 million, Zcash funds about $19 million, Hyperliquid funds about $18 million, XRP funds roughly $1.8 million and BNB funds some $285,000. Ethereum's monthly damage is the sharpest: its cumulative October outflow stands near $955 million, the largest redemption month of the year, and its weekly losses now outrun Bitcoin's in absolute terms. Prices tracked the money. The Bitcoin price slipped 1.3% across the seven days and stood near $82,783 when the weekly count closed, while Ethereum (ETH) lost about 5% to trade around $2,433. Spot markets have since settled: our live monitoring puts BTC at $82,344, up 0.4% over 24 hours, with the Fear and Greed Index reading 59 out of 100, still in greed territory.

The numbers behind the weekly print are confirmed rather than modeled: issuers disclose daily creations and redemptions for each fund, and aggregators assemble those line items into the weekly and monthly series analysts quote; the tally above covers the trading week that ended October 17. On the year, the balances remain net positive. Bitcoin spot ETFs have added roughly $259 million of cumulative net creations since January, and Ethereum spot ETFs about $610 million. Those cushions are thinner than they look. Ethereum's October outflow alone, near $955 million, exceeds the roughly $610 million that wrapper has added across the year to date, so a single month of redemptions has outweighed a full year of net gains on that product. Ethereum's streak also began a week earlier than Bitcoin's, which lines up with the larger cumulative damage on the Ethereum (ETH) side. October is now the costliest month of the year for the ETH wrappers by a wide margin. The pace, at least, is decelerating: combined outflows fell from $1.22 billion to $549 million week over week, and the price damage shrank alongside them, with Bitcoin's 1.3% weekly loss modest next to Ethereum's 5%. What has not changed is direction. Every major crypto ETF tracked last week, from the two flagship wrappers down to the BNB fund, recorded net redemptions, and the breadth of withdrawals touching five altcoin products in a single week separates this run from episodes concentrated in one asset. That is why commentary attached to the tally stops short of calling a long-term reversal: annual flows stay positive even as the recent run continues. The next set of issuer disclosures, due after Monday's US session, will show whether the deceleration held.

The week's issuer-level and day-by-day detail adds texture to the tally. BlackRock's IBIT accounted for $165.4 million of the redemptions and Fidelity's FBTC $60.2 million, while Morgan Stanley's MSBT took in $6.7 million. The daily path was choppy: $65.4 million left on Monday, Tuesday flipped to a $175.62 million inflow, Wednesday gave it back with $261.46 million of redemptions, Thursday posted a slim $5.06 million gain and Friday saw $82.39 million leave. Measured against assets, the burden fell far more heavily on the Ethereum (ETH) side: its roughly $320 million outflow equals about 2.14% of the wrapper's $14.95 billion in AUM, near ten times Bitcoin's 0.22% on a $104.29 billion base. Trading cooled alongside the selling, with Bitcoin ETF turnover sliding from $11.44 billion to $10.11 billion and Ethereum's down about 34% to $3.44 billion.

A later read on Thursday gives an updated tally on the same week: roughly $593 million left the combined Bitcoin and Ethereum spot wrappers, with Bitcoin funds at about $228.6 million on the revised count and Ethereum at $320 million, against roughly $681 million the week before. The price action around the weekly close also clarified. Bitcoin slid to $80,595 at the weekend low, briefly crossed $83,000 intraday on Monday and failed to hold it; by 15:50 UTC it was trading at $81,754, up 1.17% over the day. Liquidations ran near $334 million across the market, of which $173 million came from long positions. On-chain analytics firm Glassnode assessed that selling pressure has eased, but not enough new spot demand has arrived to replace it, with falling ETF turnover and defensive options demand pointing to a cautious market.

A closer look at the issuer split argues the week's redemptions were not a broad institutional exit. On the latest count, October 16 saw $82.4 million leave Bitcoin (BTC) spot ETFs, of which BlackRock's IBIT accounted for $71.8 million, about 87% of the day's total, and Fidelity's FBTC $10.6 million, while the remaining ten products printed flat. The week's Bitcoin tally of $228.6 million and October's cumulative $617.2 million of outflows both sit well under the more than $6.2 billion of net creations booked in Q3, and IBIT has still taken in $3.5 billion this year, holding $67.06 billion of assets, near 63% of the wrapper market. The read is that the selling looks closer to portfolio adjustments by a few large holders than a market-wide retreat.

Levels, Positioning and a Thin Cushion

Our composite support and resistance levels for Bitcoin score the $81,514 support at 89 out of 100 and the $84,548 resistance at 88, and spot trading sits between them at $82,103. Derivatives positioning looks unhurried: the perp funding rate reads 0.0068% and open interest holds near $15.9 billion, with 63.7% of accounts long against 36.3% short, so the market has not crowded one way ahead of the test. Sentiment runs warm rather than hot: the Fear & Greed Index reads 59, still in Greed territory, and Bitcoin (BTC) accounts for 68.1% of the $2.42 trillion COINOTAG-tracked market cap. Demand outside the wrappers is the swing factor: strategic bitcoin reserve-style treasury buyers and long-term HODL holders decide whether the supply funds are handing back gets absorbed. Related coverage runs both directions on that question: Cathie Wood's dollar-strength Bitcoin outlook, a five-bottom trendline toward $1 million, and MARA Holdings' 1,000 BTC exchange transfers. The level that would change the picture is the nearest resistance: a close above the $82,618 shelf, scored 65, would clear the way toward $84,548, while losing the 89-scored $81,514 support would put the 78-scored $80,348 floor in play (as of 22:34 UTC).