Investors pulled around $1.82 billion from US-based 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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