Six Days of ETF Outflows
A net outflow of $105.2 million was recorded on May 22 for the U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) market, marking six consecutive days of trading outflows since the last net inflow on May 14.
Two of the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs that suffered outflows on the same day were BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which saw $68.9 million in outflows; and Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), which saw $36.3 million in outflows.
According to Farside Investors, cumulative net inflows for 2026 have fallen to $536 million, while according to SoSoValue, the number is about $473.5 million. The discrepancy between the two estimates, approximately $62 million, is believed to be due to differences in conversion standards and aggregation cutoff times for a few funds, such as GBTC.
But in all cases, cumulative net inflows for this year have fallen to approximately $500 million.
Trends Among Institutional Investors
Net outflows in the month of May reached an initial figure of $1 billion, according to SoSoValue’s monthly data. This is a sharp deterioration from $1.97 billion in inflows in April and $1.32 billion in March.
Backing nearly all of the cumulative net inflows for 2026 is IBIT, with the fund reporting $2.7 billion in net inflows year-to-date. Many other competing funds have become net outflows.
Submissions of Form 13F to the SEC last week revealed changes in holdings held by major financial institutions. Goldman Sachs sold all its XRP Solana spot ETFs and reduced its Bitcoin spot ETF holdings by about 33%. Jane Street also reduced by 70% its holdings of spot Bitcoin ETFs.
On the other hand, Bank of America increased its IBIT holdings from 719,008 shares to 972,590 shares.
Shift to Altcoin ETFs Among Funds
When Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded large-scale outflows on the week of May 18–22, funds flowed into emerging altcoin spot ETFs.
The Hyperliquid (HYPE) spot ETF raised $72 million, the XRP spot ETF $22 million, and the Solana spot ETF $15.6 million, according to SoSoValue data. Marking the end of 2026 with cumulative net outflows year-to-date, Ethereum spot ETFs recorded outflows of $215 million in the same week.
