Spot bitcoin ETFs saw $344 million net withdrawals in April as flow reversal continued

As the spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund hype died down alongside the price of the cryptocurrency, the new U.S. ETFs saw $343.5 million worth of net outflows in April, ending their three-month inflow streak.

The ETFs had been on an impressive run of inflows, attracting $1.5 billion, $6 billion and $4.6 billion of demand in January, February and March, respectively. However, overall flows slowed significantly since peaking at a net daily inflow of $1.05 billion on March 12, according to The Block’s data dashboard , with bitcoin subsequently dropping 18% between its all-time high of $73,836 on March 14 and the end of April.

April’s outflows continued to be led by Grayscale’s higher-fee GBTC fund with $2.5 billion exiting the ETF over the month. Ark Invest’s ARKB witnessed $86.3 million in monthly net outflows and Valkyrie’s BRRR also registered minor net outflows of $0.3 million in April. The remaining funds recorded net inflows last month, though Fidelity’s FBTC and Bitwise’s BITB also registered their first daily outflows in April.

BlackRock’s IBIT continued to dominate net inflows into the spot bitcoin ETFs, taking in $1.5 billion during April, followed by $556.1 million for Fidelity’s FBTC and $125 million for Bitwise’s BITB. However, IBIT’s 71-day inflow streak — a run that put it in the top ten ETFs of all time — came to an end on April 23 and the fund has seen five days of consecutive zero flows since.

Ark Invest’s ARKB was the only spot bitcoin ETF to record net inflows on Tuesday, adding $3.6 million. Meanwhile, outflows from Grayscale’s GBTC ($93.2 million), Fidelity’s FBTC ($35.3 million) and Bitwise’s BITB ($34.3 million) contributed to net outflows of $161.6 million for the day, according to CoinGlass data .

Total net inflows for the combined U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs since trading began on Jan. 11 are now back below the $12 billion mark at $11.8 billion.

Daily trading volume for the ETFs has also declined significantly after reaching a record $9.9 billion on March 5 — as bitcoin first broke past its prior cycle peak of around $69,000 — recording $2.9 billion in trading volume on Tuesday, according to The Block’s data dashboard .

BlackRock’s IBIT dominates market share by spot bitcoin ETF trading volume while GBTC continues to be squeezed as its outflows slowly subside.

BlackRock’s IBIT close to surpassing Grayscale’s GBTC

Despite the BlackRock spot bitcoin ETF’s run of daily zero flows, it remains on course to overtake Grayscale’s converted GBTC fund in terms of assets under management. IBIT currently has 274,462 BTC ($15.6 billion) in AUM compared to GBTC’s 296,714 BTC ($16.9 billion), according to their respective fund pages.

GBTC’s converted fund has seen its assets fall by 52% from 619,220 BTC -7.58% when spot bitcoin ETF trading began. However, given the rise in the price of bitcoin during the period, this equates to a lower 41% drop in U.S. dollar terms from $28.6 billion on Jan. 11.

Bitcoin’s price has also gotten off to a poor start in May, down around 6% today alone to briefly fall back below the $57,000 level for the first time since February, according to The Block’s price page . The largest cryptocurrency by market cap is currently trading for $57,275.