Investors who piled billions into new bitcoin ETFs over the last year are pulling some of that money back out as the world’s largest cryptocurrency experiences its worst correction since a 2022 meltdown.
Between Monday and Thursday, ETFs holding bitcoin (BTC-USD) experienced $2.7 billion in net outflows, according to a preliminary estimate from JPMorgan Chase (JPM). Estimates from Bloomberg as of Thursday put this week’s outflows even higher.
These products that received approval to launch in 2024 were initially met with hungry demand from both everyday investors and major Wall Street institutions since they offered exposure to the largest cryptocurrency without having to own it — allowing these investors to trade it like they would a stock.
These products also benefitted from a surge in the price of bitcoin for much of 2024 and early 2025 amid optimism about a more favorable approach to the crypto industry from a new presidential administration in Washington, D.C.
Now some of that optimism is in question. Bitcoin’s price briefly dipped to $78,411 early Friday, marking a 28% correction from its all-time high above $109,000 hours before Trump’s inauguration in January. It is down 13% over the past five days.
Bitcoin hasn’t seen such a sizable weekly correction since November 2022, in the aftermath of the fall of crypto exchange FTX. And it is on pace to have its worst month since June 2022, when the collapse of stablecoin project Terra caused a major unwind of leverage across the crypto world.
As of 8:13:00 PM UTC. Market Open.
Bitcoin “is a volatile asset,” longtime crypto influencer Anthony Pompliano, CEO of Professional Capital Management, told Yahoo Finance on Friday. Investors are “buying volatility. If you want bitcoin to go up, you’ve got to be OK with it going down sometimes.”
But “I don’t really think that people should be that worried,” he added.
Industry watchers aren’t pinning the sell-off on any single culprit. Instead, they are pointing to a mishmash of negative forces spurring poor vibes, from broader macro uncertainty spurred by talk of widespread Trump administration tariffs to the recent hack of crypto derivatives exchange Bybit.
Trump provided a major boost to crypto asset prices last year after making major promises to the crypto world and getting elected, but after that “unbounded bullish” run-up, the market is in “hangover” mode, Alex Thorn, head of research for crypto firm Galaxy Digital, told Yahoo Finance.
“I think it’s reasonable for the market to take a breather just in general,” Thorn said.
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