SKN | Bitcoin ETFs Attract $854 Million as Rate-Hike Expectations Ease

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $853.5 million over five consecutive trading sessions last week, marking a sharp reversal from the $61.5 million in net outflows recorded the previous week. The renewed institutional demand comes as expectations for tighter monetary policy have eased, adding another layer of support to Bitcoin markets even as investors remain sensitive to inflation, Federal Reserve policy and broader risk appetite.

Institutional Flows Rebound Sharply

The five-day inflow streak lifted cumulative net inflows into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs since launch to $52.18 billion, according to SoSoValue data. Approximately $690 million of last week’s capital entered BlackRock’s IBIT, accounting for about 80% of the total and reinforcing the fund’s dominant position among the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF complex.

The reversal was particularly notable because the funds had recorded a $61.5 million net outflow during the preceding week. The latest figures suggest institutional allocation has resumed after a period of weaker demand, although the pace moderated toward the end of the week. Daily inflows declined from $128.7 million on Thursday to $98.9 million on Friday, indicating that the recovery was strong but not accelerating uniformly.

BlackRock Drives the Majority of New Capital

IBIT accounted for the overwhelming majority of weekly inflows, but flows across other products were considerably more mixed. On Friday, BlackRock’s fund attracted $86.7 million, while Fidelity’s FBTC received $41 million. In contrast, Invesco’s BTCO recorded a $19.4 million outflow and VanEck’s HODL lost $10.6 million.

The divergence suggests institutional demand is not simply spreading evenly across the market. Instead, capital continues to concentrate in the largest and most liquid products, which can be important for professional investors managing execution costs, liquidity and portfolio exposure. The concentration also means aggregate ETF inflows can mask substantial differences in investor behavior between individual funds.

ETF Demand Now Represents a Significant Share of Bitcoin’s Market

The U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs ended the week holding approximately $79.5 billion in assets, equivalent to around 6.1% of Bitcoin’s total market capitalization. That scale makes ETF flows increasingly relevant to short-term price formation and liquidity conditions across the broader digital-asset market.

HashKey senior researcher Tim Sun attributed the renewed buying partly to institutional portfolio rebalancing following a period in which the artificial-intelligence trade had experienced a pullback. He also suggested that some of the activity could reflect basis trading, meaning the headline inflows should not automatically be interpreted as purely directional long-term conviction.

This distinction matters for market participants. Strong ETF subscriptions can create additional spot demand, but some institutional strategies use ETFs as part of more complex arbitrage or hedging structures. Consequently, sustained inflows over multiple weeks would provide a stronger signal of structural allocation than a single five-day reversal.

Looking ahead, the durability of the ETF recovery will depend on whether institutional inflows continue as monetary-policy expectations evolve. Investors will be watching subsequent ETF flows, Federal Reserve signals and macroeconomic data for evidence that the latest five-day buying streak represents a broader reallocation toward Bitcoin rather than a temporary portfolio adjustment. The concentration of roughly 80% of weekly inflows in IBIT also makes the behavior of the largest institutional vehicle an important indicator of whether demand can remain resilient.