U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have just gone through the harshest withdrawal period since their launch. According to a review by Claude of TechFlow, the products recorded 13 consecutive trading days of net outflows from May 15 to June 3, with roughly $4.37 billion leaving the funds. That amount was equal to about 59,000 BTC. The pressure from redemptions coincided with a sharp decline in Bitcoin’s price, reducing the combined assets of the ETF group from about $104.29 billion to about $82.83 billion in three weeks, a drop of roughly $21.5 billion.
A 13-Day Outflow Streak Sets a New Record
Fund flows in spot Bitcoin ETFs are one of the clearest ways to track changes in institutional exposure. These ETFs buy and sell spot Bitcoin in response to investor subscriptions and redemptions, so money moving in or out directly reflects changes in fund positions. Galaxy Research data showed that U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw net outflows for 13 straight trading days between May 15 and June 3, the longest such streak since the products began trading in January 2024.
The previous record was set in February 2025, when the funds saw $3.2 billion in outflows across eight days. The latest drawdown, at about $4.37 billion, surpassed that earlier episode and pushed cumulative net flows for 2026 into negative territory for the first time. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas also confirmed that year-to-date flows turned negative during this redemption wave. Galaxy Research added that outflows across 7-day, 10-day and 20-day windows all reached new highs during the same period, showing that selling pressure was spread across an extended stretch rather than concentrated in one isolated session.
BlackRock’s IBIT was the center of the redemption activity. Farside Investors data showed that IBIT alone lost about $3.3 billion during the outflow streak, accounting for around 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-gathering product among U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs since launch, but in this period it became the main source of redemptions.
Total ETF Assets Shrink by About $21.5 Billion
The decline in total assets reflected both investor redemptions and the fall in Bitcoin’s market price. The Defiant, citing SoSoValue data, reported that the total asset size of all U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs fell from about $104.29 billion on May 15 to about $82.83 billion on June 3. The roughly $21.5 billion contraction came from two forces acting at once: redemptions removed capital from the funds, while Bitcoin dropped from above $80,000 to near $63,000, a decline of about 21%, reducing the value of the Bitcoin held by the ETFs.
Measured by holdings, the funds’ Bitcoin position fell to about 1.277 million BTC, around 7.2% below the peak reached in October 2025. The Bitcoin held by these ETFs now accounts for about 6.36% of Bitcoin’s circulating market value, down from more than 7% at the mid-May high. One redemption day stood out in particular: on May 28, BlackRock’s IBIT recorded $527.8 million in net outflows, the second-largest single-day redemption in that fund’s history. Across the full month of May, U.S. Bitcoin ETFs posted $2.43 billion in monthly net outflows, the largest monthly withdrawal on record, with $1.42 billion of that amount occurring in the final week.
June 12 Brings a Clean Day With No Fund in Outflow
The direction of flows changed in early June. On June 5, Bitcoin ETFs ended the 13-day outflow streak with a modest $3.05 million in net inflows. The figure was tiny compared with the size of the market, but it marked a change in direction. On the same day, Ether ETFs also ended a 17-day outflow streak, bringing in $19.3 million in net inflows, all of which came from BlackRock’s ETHA.
The data point that institutions highlighted more directly came on June 12. According to SoSoValue, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $85.84 million in net inflows that day. Five funds received inflows, while the other seven reported zero net movement. None of the 12 products recorded net outflows. Geoff Kendrick, global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, included this development in his checklist for a Bitcoin bottom. In a short note to clients on Friday, Kendrick said crypto asset prices had already reached the low of the current cycle, corresponding to Bitcoin at around $59,000, down 53% from a high of $126,000. He listed three confirming indicators: Strategy reported that it bought more Bitcoin last week, ETFs posted positive flows on Friday, and oil prices continued to move lower. He ended the note with the line: “The winter is over, welcome back to crypto spring.”
The single-day inflow of $85.84 million does not offset the roughly $4.4 billion that left the funds over three weeks, but it provides a cleaner point from which to assess whether selling pressure has eased. Cryptopolitan cited estimates that ETF flows can now explain about 45% of Bitcoin’s weekly price movements. Since their January 2024 launch, these Bitcoin ETFs still have cumulative net inflows of more than $55 billion, 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.