US spot Bitcoin ETFs posted net inflows of $75.7 million in the week ending July 17.
This marks a second consecutive green week after eight consecutive weeks of outflows totaling more than $8.2 billion.
The two-week recovery of $273.1 million covers just 3.3% of what investors took out of the funds between mid-May and early July. June was the worst month ever for Bitcoin ETF products since their launch in January 2024.
Bitcoin ETFs have posted consecutive positive weeks for the first time since early May.
The 13 US spot Bitcoin funds took in $75.7 million in net inflows in the week ending July 17 (more money coming in than money going out). SoSoValue data. That followed $197.4 million the week before, bringing the two-week total to $273.1 million in net gains across the funds.
When inflows exceed outflows, the simplest translation is that retailers are buying more Bitcoin than they are selling.
The big round number, $273 million, sounds meaningful until you zoom out. From mid-May to early July, these same funds experienced eight consecutive weeks of net outflows, removing more than $8.2 billion. In June 2026 alone, approximately $4.5 billion was withdrawn from the market – the worst month ever since these products launched.
The $273 million recovered so far is roughly 3.3 cents per dollar lost.
Even in the latest green week, there was volatility on Monday as $424.7 million disappeared from the fund in one day – the largest single-day withdrawal since June 26 – after renewed US-Iran military escalation roiled markets. Investors reversed course over the next four days and ended the week in the green.
Bitcoin ETFs are exchange-traded funds: exchange products that hold Bitcoin on behalf of investors, so you don’t have to manage a crypto wallet yourself. When these funds debuted in early 2024, after years of SEC denials, they got off to a great start – fulfilling the promise of bringing billions in new capital to the Bitcoin market.
More recently, however, as markets turned bearish, Bitcoin ETF investors headed for the exit.
Bloomberg Intelligence senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas published a framework on July 17 that may be the most useful lens available to anyone who currently owns Bitcoin ETFs. His argument: The 22-year history of gold ETFs — specifically GLD, the first gold ETF listed on a U.S. exchange — is the closest thing to the roadmap that Bitcoin ETF investors have.
The parallel rests on a simple structural point. Both Bitcoin and gold are what analysts call “unprofitable stores of value”: they don’t pay dividends, generate profits or carry government guarantees the way stocks and bonds do. Their price is determined by one thing: whether people want them, which makes both extremely sensitive to shifts in sentiment.
Bitcoin ETFs will likely mirror gold’s history of triumph and pain. New from me on how the 22-year history of gold ETFs can provide the best roadmap yet for Bitcoin ETF investors. Both are wrappers around non-yielding stores of value that generate no cash flow, leaving investors… pic.twitter.com/3C4tZYPLCp
The history of GLD illustrates both extremes. The fund became so popular so quickly that it briefly surpassed SPY– the largest stock ETF in the world – to become the largest ETF in the world for a day in 2011. It then took eight years in the doldrums to get back there.
Balchunas sees a “spiritual parallel” to IBIT: BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF briefly surpassed $100 billion in assets last October, almost exactly coinciding with Bitcoin’s all-time high above $126,000. Then the sliding started. Bitcoin has since lost about half its value and is currently trading around $64,000.
But for long-term hodlers, a 50% crash isn’t really as bad as a crypto winter — at least not historically.
“Bitcoin ETFs may follow the same script: spectacular gains, painful declines and recoveries that could test investors’ patience,” Balchunas wrote.
BlackRock’s IBIT has sold nearly 100,000 BTC in recent months to meet redemptions, leaving just over 733,000 BTC under management. Balchunas’ cautious optimism: Every gold ETF cycle means assets moonlight after a crash. “Two steps forward, one step back,” he wrote – while noting that the process could test patience for much longer than most investors expect.
Citigroup made the opposite bet on July 1. The bank cut its 12-month Bitcoin price target to $82,000 from $112,000 and reset expected ETF inflows for next year to zero — down from a previous estimate of $10 billion — citing negative flows, stalled U.S. crypto legislation and a weakening of institutional appetite.
The combined total net assets of $77.7 billion of all 13 spot Bitcoin ETFs are down from the $106 billion recorded just before outflows began in mid-May.
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