Bitcoin ETFs Bleed $265M as July Ends, Ethereum Holds Steady

US-listed cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) ended July on a mixed note, with spot Bitcoin ETFs posting their largest daily outflow in over two weeks. On Friday, July 31, spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $265.4 million in net outflows, erasing the strong inflow from the previous day. The largest withdrawals were led by BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which lost $122.7 million, followed by Fidelity's Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) with $54.8 million in outflows.

Grayscale's Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) recorded another $52.6 million in redemptions, while Bitwise's BITB and ARK 21Shares' ARKB lost $17.8 million and $17.5 million respectively. Despite the sharp daily reversal, Bitcoin ETFs still finished July with modest positive net inflows after ending two consecutive months of heavy redemptions.

Spot Ethereum ETFs, meanwhile, attracted $15.4 million in net inflows on July 31, extending the category's positive momentum and capping another month in which Ether funds outperformed their Bitcoin counterparts. The divergence reflects an evolving institutional allocation strategy, with investors increasingly willing to differentiate between Bitcoin's role as a macro asset and Ethereum's position as the leading smart-contract platform.

The concentration of redemptions among the largest funds suggests institutional investors were primarily responsible for the outflows rather than retail traders. BlackRock, Fidelity and Grayscale together accounted for more than $230 million of the day's withdrawals.