American Bitcoin Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are on track to end a five-week streak of net outflows, with their strongest performance since mid-January.
Funds have seen net inflows of $1.1 billion over three consecutive days, according to SoSoValue data, leaving them about $815 million ahead after accounting for Monday’s net outflows, the largest since adding $1.4 billion in the week ended Jan. 16.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) accounted for more than half of the three-day flow, bringing in around $652 million. On Wednesday, Grayscale’s GBTC, which carries the highest fees among funds, saw its largest single-day inflow since converting from a trust structure to an ETF.
The new inflows suggest a return of US demand, a conclusion reinforced by the fact that the Coinbase Premium Index turned positive after 40 days in negative territory. The index tracks the price difference between bitcoin on Coinbase (COIN), accessible to businesses in the world’s largest economy, and the broader global market. It is widely used as an indicator of institutional flows and investor sentiment in the United States.
Checkonchain data shows that total bitcoin holdings in U.S. spot ETFs climbed to 1.29 million BTC, putting assets under management (AUM) less than 10% below their October peak.
This is happening despite the bitcoin spot price remaining 45% below its October record high. The largest cryptocurrency continued to consolidate around the mid-$60,000 range this week.
Meanwhile, open interest on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) continued to decline, falling to 107,780 BTC, according to Glassnode data. Since CME allows institutions to simultaneously take a long position in spot bitcoin and a short position in futures contracts – a strategy known as basis trading – the decline in futures can be seen as indicating that ETF entries are outright long positions.
