CoinShares notes potential sentiment turn for bitcoin despite ETFs’ weekly outflow streak

U.S. spot Bitcoin BTC +1.90% exchange-traded funds witnessed a combined $37.3 million in net outflows last week for the third consecutive week.

Grayscale’s converted GBTC ETF led the outflows with $155 million exiting the higher-fee fund, followed by Franklin Templeton’s EZBC and VanEck’s HODL, which registered $17.3 million and $3.3 million in net weekly outflows, respectively.

The remaining ETFs generated net inflows last week, led by BlackRock’s IBIT which attracted $82.4 million, all of which came in on Friday. Ark Invest’s ARKB came second with $26.3 million in net weekly inflows and Bitwise’s BITB was third with $15 million. Total net inflows into the ETFs since trading began in January currently stand at $14.5 billion.

Adding last week’s flows, the spot Bitcoin ETFs net weekly outflow streak has now reached a record $1.16 billion. This is the largest weekly outflow streak since a four-week, $1.05 billion run between April 8 and May 6, according to The Block’s data dashboard .

There are signs of a shifting tide, however, with the ETFs registering daily net inflows Tuesday through Friday last week, totaling $137.2 million. Only Monday saw net outflows last week, with $174.5 million exiting the funds as bitcoin briefly fell below $60,000 following the news that defunct exchange Mt. Gox is set to distribute around $9 billion worth of bitcoin and bitcoin cash repayments from July.

Bitcoin is currently trading for $62,862, according to The Block’s bitcoin price page , up 2.8% over the past week despite the Mt. Gox announcement and continued sales of seized bitcoin by the German government.

BTC/USD price chart. Image: TheBlock/TradingView .

Signs of sentiment improving for bitcoin

Globally, digital asset investment products registered $30 million in net outflows last week, according to asset manager CoinShares' latest report. However, there are signs sentiment is turning for bitcoin amid a “significant stemming” of recent outflows, CoinShares Head of Research James Butterfill said .

U.S.-based products led the net inflows with $43 million, while Germany, Hong Kong, Canada and Switzerland-based funds saw outflows totaling $79 million.

Contrasting two prior weeks of net outflows across the board, most providers saw minor net inflows last week, with the exception of Grayscale, led by multi-asset and Bitcoin-based exchange-traded products, generating $18 million and $10 million, respectively. Short Bitcoin products also saw a rise in net outflows to $4.2 million, adding weight to the potential turn in sentiment.

Conversely, Ethereum-based ETPs saw their largest net outflows since August 2022, totaling $61 million. That makes it the worst-performing asset year-to-date in terms of net flows, Butterfill added, despite growing anticipation for the launch of spot Ethereum ETFs in the U.S.

Trading volumes rose by 43% week-on-week to $6.2 billion globally, according to CoinShares, but remain significantly below the $14.2 billion weekly average this year.

Spot Ethereum ETFs edge closer to going live

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission returned S-1 forms to their prospective Ethereum ETF issuers last week in the latest round of back and forth before they go effective.

The forms were handed back with light comments, according to a source at one issuer on Friday. The issuers have been asked to address the comments and refile them by July 8.

The source noted that when the forms are handed back in, this won't be the final filing, meaning there will need to be at least one more round of filings before the ETFs can finally start trading.

The S-1 forms are the second part of a two-step process for the ETFs to go live. The first part saw issuers' 19b-4 forms approved on May 23 . However, the S-1s are not bound to any specific deadline and issuers are dependent on how quickly the SEC can turn them around.

VanEck and 21Shares file for spot Solana ETFs in the US

Solana also got in on the action last week, with VanEck and 21Shares filing for spot Solana ETFs in the U.S. on Thursday and Friday, respectively.

However, the SEC previously identified SOL as a security in charges filed against crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase last year. The Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs were also not approved until CFTC-regulated futures markets and U.S. futures ETFs had been established first.

"This only has a shot to launch sometime in 2025 if we have a new admin in the White House and SEC," Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst James Seyffart said . "Even then not guaranteed."