In brief
- U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs posted $225.2 million in net outflows on July 23, ending a seven-day streak that had pulled in nearly $1 billion, according to SoSoValue data.
- BlackRock's IBIT accounted for the bulk of the exit at $202.5 million, while Morgan Stanley's MSBT was the only Bitcoin fund to add money, taking in $5 million.
- Spot Ethereum ETFs moved the opposite direction, adding $26.3 million to stretch their own inflow streak to five straight days.
It was nice while it lasted. Bitcoin ETFs just had their first bad day in more than a week.
U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs—stock market funds that hold Bitcoin so investors don't need their own crypto wallet—posted $225.2 million in net outflows on Thursday, snapping a seven-session streak that had pulled in close to $1 billion.
It's the category's first negative day since July 13.
An "outflow" means more investors cashed out than put money in, forcing the fund to sell some of its Bitcoin to cover redemptions. One bad day didn't erase a good week: the funds still closed roughly $274 million higher for the five sessions through Thursday.
BlackRock's IBIT, the largest fund in the category, did almost all of the damage, shedding $202.5 million. Fidelity's FBTC, Bitwise's BITB, ARK 21Shares' ARKB, Franklin Templeton's EZBC, and WisdomTree's BTCW all posted smaller losses. Morgan Stanley's MSBT was the lone holdout, adding $5 million.
Bitcoin dips as Iran war rattles Wall Street
The timing wasn't random. U.S. stocks fell Thursday as the ongoing U.S.-Iran military exchange, now well into its fifth month, kept oil prices elevated. Bitcoin briefly slipped under the psychologically important $65,000 mark, touching the $64,600 price point, once again under what traders refer to as a death cross. (That’s a pattern on the chart that forms when the shorter-term average price is below the longer-term average price, which is a classic bear market signal.)
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index—a gauge that tracks momentum, volatility, and social sentiment to score the market from 0 (extreme fear) to 100 (extreme greed)—dropped three points to 28 on Thursday. That’s still firmly in "fear" territory, but it’s also the most panic-steered sentiment in the whole month.
We’ve noted here previously that the seven-day bullish streak followed eight brutal weeks that drained more than $8.2 billion from the same funds. Bloomberg Intelligence's Eric Balchunas has been framing the cycle through gold ETFs' 22-year track record, predicting "two steps forward, one step back" for Bitcoin funds.
That earlier bleed was bad enough that CoinShares' James Butterfill called it the "largest run of outflows we've ever seen" when inflows first returned in early July.
Ethereum funds shrugged off Thursday's mood, adding $26.3 million and extending their streak to five days—a split suggesting rotation within crypto, not an exit from it. Bitcoin’s next real test arrives at the Federal Reserve’s July 28-29 meeting. What the central bank decides to do with rates could decide the near-term macro picture, taking Bitcoin along with it.