Bitcoin ETFs Bleed $4.4B in 13-Day Streak, but Lifetime Inflows Stay Positive

US spot Bitcoin ETFs shed more than $2 billion in net outflows over a two-week stretch spanning late May and early June, part of a longer 13-day redemption streak that drained roughly $4.4 billion from the funds, according to Crypto Briefing. The stretch ranks among the most sustained selling periods since the products launched in January 2024.

BlackRock’s IBIT, the largest spot Bitcoin ETF by assets, absorbed the bulk of the redemptions. The fund lost $1.3 billion in a single week, with several individual trading days seeing outflows exceed $500 million, Crypto Briefing reports.

What triggered the exodus

The redemptions coincided with a pullback in Bitcoin’s price, which fell from early-year highs above $80,000 to a range between $60,000 and $73,500 during the same period, per the report. Analytics firms including SoSoValue, CoinShares and Glassnode tracked the selling as it unfolded.

Crypto Briefing attributes the outflows to a mix of factors: shifting market sentiment, geopolitical tensions, rising Treasury yields, and recalibrated expectations for interest rate cuts. Post-rally profit-taking also likely played a role, with some investors simply locking in gains after Bitcoin’s strong earlier-year run rather than turning outright bearish on the asset.

Ethereum ETFs faced their own extended outflow period during the same window, though Bitcoin funds accounted for the vast majority of total redemptions, according to the report.

Outflows small relative to total assets

Total assets under management across spot Bitcoin ETFs stood near $100 billion to $103 billion before the May pullback began, meaning the two-week, $2 billion outflow represented roughly 2% of total AUM. The full 13-day, $4.4 billion streak amounted to only about 4% to 4.5% of the total pool, per Crypto Briefing.

Bloomberg Intelligence analysts reached a similar conclusion, noting that with nearly $100 billion still held in these products, the vast majority of investors did not exit. They characterized the redemptions as short-term noise rather than a structural shift in institutional demand for Bitcoin exposure, according to the report.

Cumulative inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs since their January 2024 launch had reached approximately $58 billion by April 2026. Even after the May-June selling, the products remained net-positive on a lifetime basis, Crypto Briefing notes.

Signs the selling pressure is easing

By early July, the outflow streak showed signs of exhaustion. After ten consecutive days of redemptions, Bitcoin ETFs posted a modest net inflow of roughly $221 million to $222 million, according to the report.

The episode underscores a structural feature of spot Bitcoin ETFs: the same one-click accessibility that makes them an easy entry point for institutional capital also makes them an easy exit. Unlike self-custodied Bitcoin, which involves transfer delays, exchange deposits and withdrawal limits, ETF shares can be redeemed instantly during market hours, Crypto Briefing points out.

That dynamic also explains why IBIT bore the brunt of the selling — the fund simply holds the most assets, so large institutional rebalancing naturally shows up there first. Analysts cited in the report suggest that cumulative inflow trends over rolling three-month and six-month windows, rather than any single day’s flow figure, offer a more reliable read on institutional Bitcoin appetite going forward.

Read more: CryptoQuant CEO: Bitcoin’s Next Bull Run May Need Trillions in Fresh Capital