The US-listed spot bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have seen record outflows over the past four months, confirming that a fully-fledged crypto market is on the way.
Investors have pulled $6.39 billion from bitcoin ETFs over four straight months of outflows, the longest monthly losing streak since the funds launched in January 2024, according to data source SoSoValue data.
Ether ETFs have also fallen out of favor, bleeding $2.76 billion over the past 4 months.
These huge outflows indicate that the institutional appetite for digital assets has collapsed, which explains the price losses in the two tokens. Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market cap, peaked at over $126,000 in early October and has since nearly halved to $67,000. Ether has had a much steeper decline, down over 60% from highs above $4,950 last August.
Alternative investment vehicles such as spot ETFs emerged as the clearest and most observable source of sustained institutional activity following their debut in early 2024. Investors poured billions into 2024 and in the months after pro-crypto Donald Trump’s victory in the US election, fueling the bull run in both tokens at the time.
However, demand faded after the crash in early October, which was allegedly driven by price inefficiencies on the offshore exchange Binance. Recent days have seen sporadic approaches, but analysts say a sustained trend is needed for any meaningful market bounce.
