Bitcoin ETFs Bleed $636 Million as October Turns Red Again

Bitcoin ETFs’ October comeback lasted a single session.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs shed $635.6 million on Thursday, according to Decrypt’s ETF tracker, wiping out nearly 60% of the roughly $1.07 billion the funds took in over the previous three sessions. It was their biggest single-day outflow of the month, topping the $484.9 million exit on Oct. 7 that was, at the time, the worst since June.

The reversal pushed October back into negative territory. After climbing to roughly $460 million in net inflows for the month on Wednesday, the funds are now down about $176 million. Cumulative net inflows since launch slipped to $57.8 billion, with total net assets at $100.2 billion.

Ethereum ETFs followed suit, losing $110.6 million a day after snapping a five-day outflow streak. That brings their October losses to roughly $1.18 billion. Solana ETFs shed $8.9 million, bringing them to about $68 million in outflows this month, with just two days of inflows in October.

Spot crypto ETFs are exchange-traded funds that hold the underlying asset, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, and trade on stock exchanges like ordinary shares. That lets investors gain exposure through a regular brokerage account without buying or storing crypto themselves.

Bitcoin funds debuted in January 2024 and have since drawn $57.8 billion in net inflows, while Ethereum funds, which followed that July, have taken in $12.7 billion. Solana funds arrived late last year. Because issuers report flows daily and much of the money comes from institutions and financial advisers, the figures have become one of the most closely watched gauges of investor sentiment.

Yesterday’s selling coincided with a rough day across markets. Oil climbed above $111 a barrel as AI stocks slid, dragging the S&P 500 and global markets lower. The Federal Reserve next meets Oct. 27-28, with traders anticipating a “hold”—meaning, no increase to interest rates, which generally bodes well for risk assets like crypto.

Despite the heavy ETF outflows, prices barely budged. Bitcoin traded near $81,460 on Friday, flat over 24 hours and down 0.4% on the week. Ethereum dipped 0.2% to about $2,400, and Solana slipped 0.3% to roughly $104. The 30-day declines are steeper: Bitcoin is down 4.8%, Ethereum 11.4%, and Solana 10.4%.

Total crypto market cap held at about $2.85 trillion, while trading volume fell 20% to $67.1 billion. Bitcoin has settled into a wait-and-see mode, analysts told Decrypt, and that may not be a bad thing for the market.

Traders on Myriad, a prediction market developed by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan, have trimmed their bets on an October breakout.

They now give Bitcoin a 17% chance of topping $87,500 before the month ends, down from 20% a day earlier, and 9% odds of reaching $90,000. They put the odds of a slide to $77,500 at 32%. Sentiment in Myriad’s open-ended markets is more upbeat. Users give Ethereum a 61.3% chance of reaching $3,000 before $1,500, and Solana a 54.9% chance of hitting $160 before $40.