U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) had a rough Thursday, October 22. Investors pulled a net $635.6 million out of them in a single day — the largest daily outflow since June and the worst day of October so far.
The selling came right after a strong run: in the three sessions before, the same funds had taken in about $1.07 billion. Thursday’s exit erased close to 60% of that.
Who lost the most
- BlackRock IBIT: about $254 million out — the biggest single outflow.
- Fidelity FBTC: about $218 million out.
- Ark Invest / 21Shares ARKB: about $109 million out.
- Bitwise BITB and Grayscale GBTC also saw money leave.
- Morgan Stanley’s MSBT, launched in April, was one of the few with a small inflow (about $2 million).
Not just Bitcoin
- Ether ETFs lost $110.6 million on the same day. They have now lost roughly $1.18 billion in October.
- Solana ETFs also saw outflows (about $9 million).
The week and the month
The week still looks positive overall: Monday to Thursday, spot Bitcoin ETFs took in a net $443 million thanks to big inflows on Monday and Wednesday. But for October as a whole, the funds have slipped back to a small net outflow.
Since they launched in January 2024, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have attracted about $57.8 billion in net inflows and hold just over $100 billion in assets.
What drove it
The pull-back matched a broader sell-off on Wall Street. On Thursday the Nasdaq fell 2.6%, its worst day since June, and the S&P 500 dropped 1.2%. Worries about the cost of the AI boom, weak tech earnings, rising oil prices and geopolitical tension all weighed on risky assets — and Bitcoin still tends to move with tech stocks.
Bitcoin itself held up fairly well. It traded around $81,500 on Friday, after a drop of roughly 3% from the day before. Over 24 hours, more than $440 million in leveraged crypto bets were forcibly closed, most of them bets on rising prices.
The U.S. Federal Reserve meets next on October 27–28, and markets expect it to keep interest rates unchanged.
Why it matters
Spot ETFs are now one of the main ways big investors and ordinary savers buy Bitcoin, so their daily flows are a good gauge of demand. One bad day does not set a trend, but it shows how quickly money can leave when stock markets turn nervous. Traders are watching the $80,000–$81,000 zone: if Bitcoin holds there and ETF inflows return, the dip may pass; if not, it would point to weaker demand going into November.
This article is for information only and is not financial advice.
