US-listed Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have seen record outflows over the past four months, confirming that a real crypto market is underway.
Investors withdrew $6.39 billion from Bitcoin ETFs over four straight months of outflows, the longest streak of monthly losses since the funds launched in January 2024, according to data source SoSoValue.
Ether ETFs have also fallen out of favor, losing $2.76 billion over the past 4 months.
These huge outflows indicate that institutional appetite for digital assets has collapsed, explaining the price losses of both tokens. Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market value, peaked at over $126,000 in early October and has since nearly halved to $67,000. Ether saw a much steeper fall, down more than 60% from highs above $4,950 in August of last year.
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 invested billions in 2024 and in the months following pro-crypto Donald Trump’s victory in the US election, fueling the uptrend for both tokens at the time.
Demand, however, evaporated after the crash in early October, believed to be due to pricing inefficiencies on offshore exchange Binance. The past few days have seen sporadic inflows, but analysts say a sustained trend is necessary for any significant market rebound.
