Bitcoin ETF Outflows Top $1 Billion as BTC-USD Holds Around $89K and IBIT Trades Near $50

Bitcoin ETF Flows vs BTC-USD Price: Liquidity Rotates While BTC-USD Slumps

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is trading around $89,000–$90,000, down roughly 17% over the last three months and about 7–8% in the past week, while ETF flow data shows a sharp but selective de-risking. Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs just registered close to $1.0 billion in single-day outflows, yet futures-based products and leveraged vehicles still attract new money. The headline is negative price momentum, but the structure of demand for Bitcoin exposure is more nuanced than a simple “exit” narrative.

Spot Bitcoin And Ethereum ETFs: One-Day $1 Billion Drain

U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs saw roughly $709–707 million in net redemptions on 21 January, the largest single-day outflow since November. In parallel, spot Ethereum ETFs shed around $297–298 million, bringing the combined outflow for the day to just under $1.0 billion.
Despite this, cumulative flows since launch remain positive, and total spot Bitcoin ETF assets are still around $134–151 billion depending on the cut of data. January flows are only marginally positive overall – roughly $17–18 million net – but that small positive comes after several sessions of aggressive de-risking, not in calm conditions.
Flows are concentrated in the biggest wrappers. BlackRock’s and Fidelity’s products dominate the tape, so when outflows accelerate, they appear primarily through these funds while smaller issuers show mixed or even stable activity.

IBIT (iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF): Core Liquidity Hub Under Pressure

The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) is now the central institutional access point to Bitcoin (BTC-USD). On the equity side, IBIT last traded near $50.79, down $0.33 on the day, with an intraday range of $50.12–$50.98 and a 52-week range of $42.98–$71.82. The displayed market cap around $176.65 billion reflects the fund’s dominant scale in listed Bitcoin exposure.
On the flow side, IBIT is carrying the heaviest load. In the most recent stress session, it saw roughly $355–356 million in net outflows, the largest single-fund withdrawal across the Bitcoin ETF complex and more than any peer. Fidelity’s FBTC followed with around $287–288 million in outflows, meaning those two vehicles alone accounted for over 90% of the daily Bitcoin ETF redemptions.
This is exactly how professional de-risking tends to behave: the most liquid, lowest-friction vehicle is used as the primary valve for cutting exposure. At the same time, IBIT remains one of the largest cumulative winners. In early 2026, it absorbed around $888 million of net inflows in just the first trading days of the year, and total assets for the Bitcoin ETF cohort grew to the $134 billion range.
Derivatives depth reinforces this role. IBIT already ranks around 9th in the U.S. by options open interest, with more than 7.7 million contracts outstanding. That pushes IBIT into the same liquidity conversation as long-standing equity and index ETFs, underlining that Bitcoin exposure via IBIT is fully embedded in institutional risk systems.

BITO Futures ETF: Inflows Into A Weak BTC-USD Tape

The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) – a futures-based vehicle tied to BTC-USD – attracted about $13.25 million in fresh money on 20 January 2026, even as spot Bitcoin remained under pressure. With assets under management roughly $2.63 billion, that single-day flow represents about 0.50% of AUM.
This inflow comes against a backdrop where BTC-USD trades near $89,900, down close to 17% over the last three months, and where short-term technicals are flashing a Strong Sell on the one-day horizon. The combination of weak price momentum and fresh inflows indicates a specific use case: investors are not blindly accumulating; they are using BITO tactically, either to position for a rebound, monetize volatility, or manage hedges around futures curves.
With less than 1% of BITO’s AUM moving in that flow day, this is not a wholesale sentiment reversal. It is, however, a clear signal that futures-based Bitcoin exposure remains actively used in portfolios even during drawdowns, rather than being abandoned.

BITX 2x Bitcoin ETF: Leveraged Traders Lean Into The Drawdown

The 2x Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITX) amplifies daily BTC-USD moves and therefore offers a clean view into speculative risk appetite. On 21 January 2026, BITX pulled in roughly $34.24 million in net inflows, about 2.32% of its $1.48 billion in AUM.
This flow hit the tape while BTC-USD hovered around $89,900, down about 17% over three months, with near-term technical models again flashing Strong Sell. In other words, directional signals are negative, yet investors are sending meaningful new capital into a 2x leveraged long product.
That pattern usually reflects two behaviours: high-conviction traders using leverage to fade the sell-off, and systematic players trading intraday volatility rather than directional conviction over weeks. With more than $1.4 billion now parked in BITX, the latest flow confirms that leveraged Bitcoin risk remains very much alive, even as spot charts point lower.

Trump, Tariffs, Greenland: Macro Shift Behind ETF Outflows

The latest Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF outflows coincide with a politically driven macro swing. President Donald Trump has been using tariffs and Greenland as bargaining chips, and his messaging triggered both a risk-off move and then a violent reversal.
Earlier in the week, he raised the prospect of tariffs on Europe in the context of U.S. ambitions around Greenland and Arctic security. Markets sold off on the tariff threat, and risk assets – including Bitcoin (BTC-USD) – moved lower. Then, at Davos, Trump publicly ruled out the use of force over Greenland and signaled a halt to tariffs on European nations, saying he had reached a “framework of a deal” after talks with NATO’s Mark Rutte.
That pivot revived the “TACO” pattern – Trump Always Chickens Out – where aggressive tariff threats are walked back once markets wobble. Equities in the U.S., Europe and Asia rebounded. Crypto ETFs, however, showed a delayed and more risk-averse reaction: the $709 million Bitcoin ETF outflow and $287 million Ethereum ETF withdrawal came as investors reassessed macro risk and rotated out of the highest-beta expressions.
On the spot side, BTC-USD is trading around $89,000, down about 7.5% over the last week, while ETH-USD sits near $2,900–2,950, having fallen roughly 12–13% in the same period. Strategists at Wintermute and GSR describe Bitcoin’s behaviour as that of a high-beta, risk-on asset, trading more like a growth equity index than a “digital gold” hedge, which explains why ETF holders react quickly to macro headlines.

Nasdaq Options Limits, IBIT Derivatives And Institutional Depth

In parallel with flows, the derivative infrastructure around Bitcoin ETFs is being loosened. Nasdaq has filed – and already received immediate effectiveness – for a rule change with the U.S. SEC to remove the 25,000-contract position and exercise limits on options tied to Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. The rule covers products such as IBIT, ETHA, and other major spot vehicles from BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, Bitwise, ARK/21Shares and VanEck.
The SEC waived the usual 30-day waiting period, making the rule effective straight away. Nasdaq’s argument is simple: crypto ETF options should be treated like any other qualifying options, not constrained by bespoke caps.
For IBIT, which already ranks in the U.S. top 10 by options open interest with more than 7.7 million contracts outstanding, this change removes a structural brake on growth in institutional derivatives usage. Large hedgers, volatility desks and macro funds can now run bigger, more flexible positions around Bitcoin ETF exposure without artificial size constraints.
This matters because ETFs are already absorbing more than 100% of the newly mined Bitcoin supply, according to analysts following flows and issuance. Even after the recent three-day outflow streak of roughly $1.1–1.58 billion, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs took in about $1.16 billion in net inflows in the first two trading days of 2026 alone, including a $697 million single-day haul on 5 January, the strongest since October 2025. The removal of options limits gives that capital deeper hedging and leverage tools, supporting further institutionalisation of the BTC-USD trade.

Leveraged Crypto ETFs And The Repo Market: Volatility Pipeline Into TradFi

Beyond listed flows, leveraged Bitcoin ETFs are starting to show up in the plumbing of traditional funding markets. Leveraged crypto ETF market cap is still small at about $4.6 billion, but its growth is rapid, and its funding model connects directly to the repo market.
Many leveraged ETFs, including 2x Bitcoin products, do not hold spot BTC-USD. Instead, they hold cash and high-quality liquid assets and obtain exposure through futures. That structure means they must constantly manage initial and variation margin, as well as daily rebalancing. When Bitcoin prices move sharply, margin calls and rebalancing flows create state-dependent demand for short-term cash.
The repo market – with around $12.6 trillion in average daily exposure, over 10% of global GDP – is the core funding artery of financial markets. In the three months leading up to June 2025, one leveraged crypto ETF provider, Volatility Shares, executed about $13 billion in repo transactions, making it the single largest repo borrower among U.S. mutual funds and ETFs over that period. The absolute number is small versus total repo volumes, but the mechanism is important.
If leveraged crypto ETFs grow substantially and a large BTC-USD drawdown coincides with broader funding stress, their synchronized margin-driven demand for cash could amplify strains in repo markets. For now, the footprint is modest, but crypto volatility has a direct channel into traditional funding markets via these vehicles, and regulators are starting to monitor that link.

Rotation To Solana And XRP ETFs: Altcoin Products Buck The Outflow Trend

While Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs bled capital, altcoin-linked products saw money move in the opposite direction. Spot Solana (SOL) and XRP ETFs recorded net inflows on the same day that the Bitcoin and Ethereum complexes lost over $1.0 billion.
Solana ETFs took in about $2.92 million in net inflows on 21 January, bringing cumulative inflows close to $870 million and pushing assets under management to roughly $1.10 billion. This came even as SOL-USD price fell more than 11% over the week.
XRP ETFs posted around $7.16 million in net daily inflows, lifting cumulative inflows since launch to about $1.23 billion and AUM to roughly $1.39 billion. Recent flows were led by products from Bitwise, Franklin Templeton and Canary Capital.
The pattern is consistent: investors are not exiting crypto exposure entirely; they are rotating. Large, liquid BTC-USD and ETH-USD products are used to cut beta in response to macro risk, while smaller but focused SOL and XRP funds attract selective inflows on relative-value and narrative grounds – faster networks, different regulatory outlooks, or simply mean-reversion trades after earlier underperformance.

Selling Pressure Across Bitcoin And Ether ETFs: Multiple Data Feeds Converge

The same story appears across several data sources. Beyond the SoSoValue numbers, reports from venues like Bitcoin.com, MEXC and other aggregators describe another wave of aggressive exits from Bitcoin and Ether ETFs mid-week, with selling pressure “intensifying” as funds lost over $1 billion in days and redemptions “nearly wiped out” 2026 gains at one point.
Weekly, Bitcoin ETFs have already logged about $1.19 billion in net outflows, while Ethereum ETFs, despite still holding roughly $18.3 billion in assets (around 5% of ETH’s market cap), have seen mood swing from optimism back to caution. Outflows are led by BlackRock’s ETHA and complemented by redemptions from Fidelity and Grayscale vehicles, with only low-fee or mini-trust products still attracting modest inflows.
At the same time, price action aligns with this risk-off stance: BTC-USD fell back from recent one-month highs to the $89,000 area, and ETH-USD slipped from briefly reclaiming $3,000 to sub-$2,950 levels, with derivative positioning and prediction markets showing rising probabilities of further downside (for ETH, odds have shifted toward tests of the $2,500 region before any sustainable move toward $4,000).

BITO, BITX, IBIT And The Signal From Flows: Capitulation Or Positioning Reset?

Putting all the products together – IBIT, BITO, BITX and the broader spot ETF complex – the signal is not a structural abandonment of Bitcoin (BTC-USD). Instead, the data points to a positioning reset after a strong start to 2026 and rising macro noise.
IBIT remains the core institutional vehicle with $176B+ in implied exposure and top-10 options liquidity, even as it leads outflows on stress days. BITO, with $2.63B in AUM, is still drawing incremental capital ($13.25M inflow) despite a 17% three-month price decline in BTC-USD and bearish daily technicals. BITX, with $1.48B in AUM, is seeing $34.24M of new money – more than 2.3% of assets – flowing into 2x leveraged exposure at exactly the point where charts look worst.
Overlay that with early-January net ETF inflows of about $1.16B in just two sessions and January 5’s $697M one-day intake, and the picture is clear: professional and retail investors are still using Bitcoin ETFs as their primary instrument set for expressing views on BTC-USD – cutting, adding, leveraging and rotating – rather than walking away from the asset class.

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