Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the U.S. faced another challenging week as rising trade tensions followed President Donald Trump’s announcement of new tariffs, referred to as ‘Liberation Day’ duties.
As per data from a prominent analysis platform, the 12 spot Bitcoin ETFs registered a total of $172.89 million in net outflows over the week, ending a two-week inflow streak that had previously brought in nearly $941 million.
Specifically, these ETFs saw outflows on four out of five days from March 31 to April 4. On Monday, outflows reached $71.07 million, followed by $157.64 million on Tuesday, $99.86 million on Thursday, and $64.88 million on Friday. The only day with a positive flow was Wednesday, which reported inflows of $220.76 million.
The bulk of the outflows originated from Grayscale GBTC, which lost $95.5 million over the week, followed by WisdomTree’s BTCW with a reduction of $44.6 million, according to data from another analysis site. Additional outflows were noted from IBIT, BITB, ARKB, and HODL funds, which experienced net redemptions of $35.5 million, $24.1 million, $22.2 million, and $4.9 million, respectively.
Nevertheless, it wasn’t an entirely negative week, as Grayscale’s spot Bitcoin Trust, Franklin Templeton’s EZBC, and Fidelity’s FBTC collectively saw inflows of $61.8 million. The other BTC ETFs remained unchanged over the five-day period.
The decrease in investor interest extended beyond Bitcoin ETFs, as Ethereum ETFs reported $49.93 million in outflows for the past week, marking six consecutive weeks of withdrawals, which have aggregated over $795 million.
These outflows coincide with Bitcoin’s poorest first-quarter performance since 2018, compounded by a decline in investor sentiment due to Trump’s new tariff proposals that initiate a flat 10% on all imports and increased rates for specific major trading partners, heightening concerns of an impending global trade conflict.
At the time of reporting, the cryptocurrency market had declined nearly 10% within the last day. Bitcoin dropped 9.3%, slipping below the $76,500 threshold, a crucial level that BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes had cautioned must be maintained to prevent further losses.