U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have just passed through their harshest redemption cycle since launch. According to Galaxy Research, the products recorded 13 consecutive trading days of net outflows from May 15 to June 3, with total withdrawals of about $4.37 billion, equal to roughly 59,000 Bitcoin. The previous record was set in February 2025, when the funds saw eight straight days of outflows totaling $3.2 billion. This latest stretch surpassed that mark in both duration and scale, and it pushed cumulative 2026 net flows into negative territory for the first time.
A 13-Day Outflow Streak Sets a New Record
For spot Bitcoin ETFs, creations and redemptions are tied to real-time buying and selling of spot Bitcoin, making fund flows a direct gauge of position changes by investors using these vehicles. Galaxy Research also noted that outflows over seven-day, 10-day and 20-day windows all reached record levels during the same period, showing that the selling pressure was not concentrated in a single session but persisted over a meaningful stretch of trading days. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas confirmed that year-to-date flows turned negative for the first time during this period.
BlackRock’s IBIT was the center of the redemption wave. Data from Farside Investors showed that IBIT alone lost about $3.3 billion over the outflow period, representing roughly three quarters of the total. Fidelity’s FBTC followed with about $456.6 million in outflows, while Grayscale’s GBTC saw about $303.6 million leave the fund. IBIT had been the strongest asset gatherer among the group since launch, but it became the largest source of redemptions in this episode.
Total Assets Shrink by About $21.5 Billion in Three Weeks
The effect of outflows was amplified by Bitcoin’s price decline during the same period. Citing SoSoValue data, The Defiant reported that total assets across all U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs fell from about $104.29 billion on May 15 to roughly $82.83 billion on June 3, a decline of around $21.5 billion in three weeks. That reduction reflected two forces working at the same time: redemptions directly removed capital from the funds, while Bitcoin’s move from above $80,000 to around $63,000, a drop of about 21%, reduced the market value of remaining holdings.
Holdings also declined in Bitcoin terms. The ETFs’ combined Bitcoin position fell to about 1.277 million BTC, roughly 7.2% below the peak reached in October 2025. These funds now hold about 6.36% of Bitcoin’s circulating market value, down from more than 7% at the mid-May high. One redemption stood out on May 28, when BlackRock’s IBIT posted $527.8 million in single-day net outflows, the second-largest daily redemption in the fund’s history. Across the full month of May, U.S. Bitcoin ETFs recorded $2.43 billion in net outflows, their largest monthly outflow on record, with $1.42 billion of that total occurring in the final week.
June 12 Brings a Clean Day With No Fund in Outflow
The first shift appeared in early June. On June 5, Bitcoin ETFs recorded a small net inflow of $3.05 million, ending the 13-day outflow streak. The amount was minor relative to the size of the market, but the direction changed. On the same day, Ethereum ETFs also ended a 17-day run of outflows, bringing in $19.3 million, all of which came from BlackRock’s ETHA.
The data point that drew more institutional attention came on June 12, a Friday. According to SoSoValue, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs posted $85.84 million in single-day net inflows. Five funds attracted capital, while the remaining seven recorded zero net flow, and none of the 12 products posted a net outflow. That across-the-board absence of outflows was treated by bullish observers as a key measure of whether selling pressure had eased. Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research, Geoff Kendrick, included it in his list of three pieces of evidence that Bitcoin had bottomed.
Standard Chartered Adds ETF Flows to Its Bottoming Checklist
In a brief note to clients on Friday, Kendrick said crypto asset prices had reached the low of the current cycle, corresponding to Bitcoin around $59,000, down 53% from a $126,000 high. He named three confirmation indicators: Strategy reported that it had bought more Bitcoin the previous week, ETFs recorded positive inflows on Friday, and oil prices continued to move lower. The note ended with the line: “The winter is over, welcome back to crypto spring.”
The June 12 inflow of $85.84 million does not reverse the roughly $4.4 billion that exited over the prior three weeks. It does, however, provide a clean trading-day sample for assessing whether redemption pressure has peaked. ETF flows have become increasingly tied to Bitcoin’s price action. A calculation cited by Cryptopolitan said ETF flows can currently explain about 45% of Bitcoin’s weekly price movement. Since their launch in January 2024, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs still have more than $55 billion in cumulative net inflows and remain less than $10 billion away from their historical peak. Balchunas therefore described the $4.4 billion outflow as a meaningful momentum reversal rather than a structural collapse.