Investors pulled around $1.82 billion from US spot Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) over the past five trading days, as market sentiment continued to weaken after the precious metals rally.
Between Monday and Friday, US-based spot Bitcoin ($BTC) ETFs lost $1.49 billion, while spot Ether (ETH) ETFs saw $327.10 million in net outflows, according to Farside. The outflows come as the spot price of both cryptocurrencies continued to decline, despite recent signs of a recovery. Over the past seven days, Bitcoin and Ether have fallen 6.55% and 8.99% respectively, trading at $83,400 and $2,685, according to CoinMarketCap.
Bitcoin rose 7% over the two days leading to Jan. 15 amid speculation about the US CLARITY Act, but the rally was short-lived.
During that period, Bitcoin ETF saw their highest inflow day for 2026 came on Jan. 14, with $840.6 million, just before The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which measures overall crypto market sentiment, surged to its highest score of the year with a “Greed” score of 61.
Bitcoin negativity is “very short-sighted,” says ETF analyst
Crypto market participants often track spot crypto ETF flows to gauge retail investor sentiment and get clues on the asset’s near-term price direction.
ETF analyst Eric Balchunas called the negativity around Bitcoin’s recent price action versus gold and silver “very short-sighted.”
“Bitcoin spanked everything so bad in ’23 and ’24,” Balchunas said in an X post on Saturday, emphasizing that people have seemed to have forgotten about that.
“Those other assets still haven’t caught up even after having their greatest year ever and $BTC being in a coma,” Balchunas said. Balchunas said that the “institutionalization narrative” got priced in for Bitcoin quickly and “ahead of it actually happening.”
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“So it had to take a breather so the actual narrative could catch up to the price,” Balchunas said.
Gold and silver reached all-time highs of $5,608 and $121, respectively, this week. However, on Friday alone, gold fell 8% to $4,887 and silver dropped around 27% to $84.
Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan said in an X post on Jan. 15 that “Bitcoin’s price will go parabolic if ETF demand persists long-term.”
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