In the days ahead of the highly anticipated US FOMC meeting, when the central bank was expected to lower the interest rates, local investors were on a shopping spree for spot Bitcoin ETFs.
However, that changed when the day arrived.
Bitcoin ETF Outflows
CryptoPotato reported yesterday the impressive streak for the four trading days leading to the FOMC meeting. As mentioned, just over $500 million in net inflows entered the 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs from September 12 to September 17.
However, the landscape was different yesterday. Even though the Federal Reserve reduced the key interest rates by 50 basis points, while the general expectations were for a more modest 0.25% cut, the financial vehicles saw $52.7 million in net outflows on the day.
Ark Invest’s ARKB led the adverse trend with $43.4 million in net withdrawals. Grayscale’s initial and largest fund (GBTC) was next with $8.1 million, and BITB trailed behind with $3.9 million. The rest saw little to no actual flows, while Grayscale’s smaller and newer fund, BTC, notched $2.7 million in inflows.
BlackRock’s IBIT remains the largest of the bunch, with almost $21 billion in AUM. However, there has been only one day of positive flow for the past three weeks.
In contrast, Fidelity’s FBTC enjoyed a favorable streak of seven consecutive days of net inflows before yesterday’s lack of action.
Consistency for Ethereum ETFs
While the spot Bitcoin ETFs saw more than $500 million in net inflows in the days leading to the Fed’s policy pivot, the Ethereum counterparts didn’t have the same luxury. The withdrawals stood at $15.1 million on Tuesday and $9.4 million on Monday.
Their situation didn’t improve much yesterday when investors pulled out $9.8 million overall from the ETH-based products. Grayscale’s ETHE was at the forefront once again, seeing $14.7 million in net outflows.
The only silver lining came from BlackRock’s EHTA, which notched $4.9 million in net inflows. ETHA is the only new financial vehicle tracking the performance of Ethereum that has surpassed the coveted $1 billion milestone since its inception a couple of months back.
Despite the negative days for the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, the underlying assets’ prices skyrocketed to multi-week peaks. BTC neared $63,000 earlier today, while ETH came close to $2,450.
This article first appeared at CryptoPotato