ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF Records Highest Outflows Since August

ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) recorded outflows of $275.2 million on Thursday, marking the steepest one-day capital flight since August 1, when the fund lost $327.9 million.

The pullback added to a brutal Thursday for Bitcoin ETFs, which collectively raised $530.9 million, according to data from Farside Investors.

BlackRock’s IBIT lost $29.5 million, Fidelity’s FBTC fell $132 million, and Grayscale’s GBTC lost $45 million, indicating a broad institutional withdrawal from the economy. Bitcoin exposure.

The week proved to be a severe punishment for Bitcoin products in general, with a net outflow of $858.7 million and only on Tuesday was the exodus broken with a single day of inflows.

The exodus comes as markets continue to absorb shocks from President Donald Trump’s 100% tariff announcement on China last Friday, which triggered the largest liquidation event in crypto history, wiping out $19 billion in leveraged positions within 24 hours.

China on Thursday nodded to openness to trade talks and accused the US of creating “panic” over Beijing’s export controls on rare earths, offering a possible off-ramp as both countries move towards a planned meeting between Trump and President Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month.

Markets shut down risk

“There is a shift in the short and medium term, especially after last Friday’s comments, towards a more risky environment, especially given the market’s exuberance on risky assets and uncorrelated assets over the past few months,” Ganesh Mahidhar, Investment Professional at Further Ventures, told reporters. Declutter.

The combination of the Ethereum-based USDe stablecoin’s depeg on Friday and a social media-driven boycott movement against Binance has brought systemic risk concerns back into focus, especially at this stage of the post-halving Bitcoin cycle, he added.

Despite managing just 50,000 BTC, compared to BlackRock’s 800,000 and Fidelity’s 210,000, ARKB is “generally one of the funds that leads” on outflow days, said Sean Dawson, head of research at Derive. Declutteradding that “ARK’s investments have remained consistently in the 40-50K BTC range since March 2024.”

The ARK fund sees “investors swapping in and out of BTC more often as a speculative asset” compared to BlackRock and Fidelity vehicles, which accommodate longer-term holders, he said.

Whether Bitcoin ETF outflows continue will depend on upcoming catalysts, particularly the Federal Reserve’s Oct. 29 FOMC meeting and the ongoing third-quarter earnings season, Mahidhar said.

“The market exuberance needs to be supported by revenue and cash flow growth in the US markets – if that happens and the FOMC meeting goes well, we could see a slowdown in the bleeding,” he noted.

Bitcoin is trading at $104,629, down 6.3% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data, and is still reeling from losses from the tariff-induced crash.