US Bitcoin ETFs Lost $946 Million After Fed’s Aggressive Tone

US Bitcoin exchange-traded funds bore the brunt of institutional outflows last week, accounting for $946 million in withdrawals, according to a new report from digital asset manager CoinShares.

iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) lost about $400 million last week, the most among the 11 spot BTC funds currently trading. But the total net outflow for all funds tracking digital assets was a less dramatic $360 million.

“Digital asset investment products saw outflows totaling $360 million last week, despite the recent US interest rate cut, as investors interpreted Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments on the likelihood of another cut in December as ‘not a foregone conclusion,’” James Butterfill, director of research at CoinShares, said in the report. “This hawkish tone, combined with a notable absence of key US economic data, appears to have left investors in a state of uncertainty.”

The BTC fund’s losses were offset by ETF gains in other regions. Funds from issuers in Germany and Switzerland had net inflows of more than $30 million last week. Issuers from Canada and Australia generated inflows worth $8.5 million and $7.2 million.

The overall crypto fund category was supported by higher-than-usual inflows into Solana exchange-traded products. Investors poured $421 million into SOL-based ETFs last week, driven by hype for the new U.S. funds that began trading in late October.

Last week’s debuts included the Bitwise Solana ETF, which trades on the Nasdaq under the BSOL ticker. The fund has already reached $105 million in assets under management after its launch a week ago. A competitor, the Rex-Osprey Solana Staking ETF, which also trades on the Nasdaq under the SSK ticker, took 12 trading days to reach $100 million in AUM.

The scarcity of US economic data is due to the ongoing US government shutdown, which has lasted more than 33 days. On Wednesday this week, the shutdown will be the longest in American history. Users of Myriad, a prediction market owned by Declutter Parent company Dastan believes there is a 97% chance that lawmakers will not end the shutdown in the next two days.

Crypto markets plunged Monday morning, forcing the liquidation of more than $1 billion in crypto contracts. Bitcoin and Ethereum were nearly tied, accounting for $312 million and $303 million in closed contracts, respectively.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $107,463, having fallen 2.5% over the past day. And Ethereum was trading at $3,657.77, down about 5.1% from this time Sunday, according to crypto price aggregator CoinGecko.