Bitcoin spot exchange traded funds (ETFs) have fallen out of favor with investors and how.
The total dollar value of net assets across the 11 spot ETFs was $77.58 billion as of June 9. That’s the same level seen just after President Donald Trump won the presidential election in early November 2024.
This does not mean that the ETFs did not grow during the 19-month period. Hopes that Trump would make good on his campaign promise of friendlier crypto regulation helped push bitcoin higher along with ETF assets. Total net assets passed $90 billion within a week of this election victory and reached an all-time high of $169.54 billion in October 2025.
But since then, those post-election gains have been erased, even as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), under the Trump administration, dropped several high-profile enforcement actions. The United States has established a strategic bitcoin reserve, and in addition, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which seeks to establish jurisdictional boundaries between the SEC and CFTC and give the industry legal weight, is emerging in Washington.
In other words, the regulatory environment has never been more favorable, yet the investor response has been to exit, dragging net assets lower.
These ETFs have recorded net outflows of over $5 billion in four weeks. Cumulative net inflows since inception, which peaked at $62.77 billion in October 2025 when bitcoin was at its peak, have since fallen by nearly $9 billion to $53.77 billion, the lowest since last August.
Analysts blame macro factors, particularly elevated inflation, for recent outflows from ETFs.
“ETF outflows reflected near-term pressures as inflation drives Fed hawks while on-chain supply tightening remains intact,” Binance Research said in a report shared with CoinDesk.
Market analyst and former co-founder of 21Shares, Ophelia Snyder, said that AI and other trending corners of the financial market are draining capital from crypto.
“You have ETF outflows as investors are increasingly distracted by other narratives competing for attention and capital, be it AI, SpaceX or other high-profile growth stories. You have ongoing market turmoil around geopolitics, the Strait of Hormuz, US jobs data, inflation and broader macroeconomic uncertainty,” she said in an email.
