US spot Bitcoin ETFs have clocked six straight days of inflows and a weekly influx breaching $3 billion. This turns out to be their first full winning week since March amid increased investors’ uncertainty due to tariff wars. April 25 alone saw BTC ETFs pulling in $380 million to hit the fresh landmark.
The global digital assets industry remained marginally stable while riding the recovery wave. The cumulative crypto market cap is inching closer to the $3 trillion mark with a 24-hour trading volume of almost $100 billion. However, the fear and greed index signals that investors’ sentiments have now shifted into the greed category.
Grayscale bleeds, BlackRock leads
As per the data, the last time the market saw a five-day Bitcoin ETF inflow streak like this was back in March, which feels like ancient history in crypto years. US Bitcoin ETFs reported an inflow of $381.4 million on April 21, $936 million on April 22, $916 million on April 23 and $442 million on April 24.
BlackRock’s ETF IBIT recorded the highest net inflow of $240.15 million on Friday and its total historical net inflows now stand at $41.2 billion. The second highest influx came in through Fidelity’s FBTC at $108.04 million. Its cumulative net inflow stands at $11.86 billion.
Grayscale’s GBTC is the only ETF that keeps hemorrhaging value. It posted an outflow of $7.53 million with a cumulative withdrawal of $22.69 billion.
Bitcoin price has surged by more than 10% over the last 7 days, during the same week that ETFs posted huge inflows. BTC is trading at an average price of $94,366 as of press time. Its 24-hour trading volume is up by 16% to stand at $35.7 billion.
Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas explained the situation as: “ETFs are on a Bitcoin bender,” and it shows. Per the analyst, flows have gone from 1st gear to 5th so fast that the possible driver behind the momentum is the return of the “basis trade,” Wall Street’s favorite arbitrage strategy involving futures and spot exposure.
Institutions FOMO into Bitcoin, traders fade
The volatility earlier in the month had investors sweating as nine out of April’s eighteen trading days were in the red. However, Michael Saylor at Bitwise’s Bitcoin Corporations Investor Day predicted that BlackRock’s IBIT will become the biggest ETF in the world within ten years. It might become bigger than Vanguard’s S&P 500 ETF (VOO), which currently towers at $593.5 billion in market cap.
BTC ETF inflows are sending out a very clear bullish signal that institutions are piling in and building a real momentum, not just in price. Social sentiment is overwhelmingly positive and the community is increasingly seeing ETFs as proof of Bitcoin’s growing legitimacy and long-term upside.
Glassnode data shows that open interest in perpetual swaps has risen to 281K BTC, and it is up by 15.6% since early March. The surge hints at the build-up of leverage in the market as prices rebound. Meanwhile, the average funding rate has dropped to -0.023% despite the rising OI, which shows a tilt towards short-side positioning. It added that BTC traders appear to be fading the rally, which might set up a possible short squeeze scenario.
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