Source: Photo: Jules Verne Times Two / julesvernex2.com / CC-BY-SA-4.0Fidelity’s Bitcoin ETF (FBTC) unveiled its latest huge purchase of 2,100 BTC after recording a daily outflow of $7.3M in BTC yesterday. ‘Red February’ marked the worst month for Bitcoin ETFs after recording the largest and longest 30-day outflow of around $3.3B.
Fidelity’s FBTC purchase of 2,100 BTC brought its total holdings to 198.43K BTC worth over $17B as of February 28th. Farside’s data confirmed that FBTC had an inflow of $176M on February 28th after eight days of straight outflows since February 18th. FBTC recorded an inflow of $94M on February 14th before going on an 8-day streak of negative netflows.
Bitbo’s data revealed that FBTC added 960.6 BTC on February 17th, 545.8 BTC on February 7th, 109.2 BTC on February 5th, 1987 BTC on January 30th, and 174.7 BTC on January 29th.
FBTC buys 2.1K BTC but records significant daily outflows in February
🚨Fidelity Buys 2100 Bitcoin
Support has arrived pic.twitter.com/tMWCTg90vD
— Thomas | heyapollo.com (@thomas_fahrer) March 1, 2025
Fidelity’s Bitcoin ETF increased its Bitcoin holdings after the purchase of 2.1K BTC worth over $178 million but recorded negative netflows for the better part of February. Farside’s data showed that FBTC registered marginally fewer outflows than other spot Bitcoin ETFs despite being the worst streak in Fidelity’s Bitcoin fund in its history. FBTC has not added Bitcoin to its fund since February 18th. Overall, Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund shares were down 3.77% over the last closing price of $82.81.
Funds like IBIT, FBTC, and GBTC were down by approximately 9.6% over the past month, while newer ETFs like BITX and BITU lost over 20% during the same period. TradingView’s data revealed that FBTC’s outflows had direct trading implications, with the BTC/USD trading pair experiencing increased volatility. The hourly standard deviation of price movements rose from 0.8% to 1.2% between 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM EST on February 28. According to Coinbase data, Ethereum saw a slight increase of 0.5% against Bitcoin in the BTC/ETH trading pair, closing at 0.062 ETH per BTC.
On-chain metrics further highlighted the impact of the ETF outflow, with the Bitcoin network’s transaction volume decreasing by 3.2% to 2.4 million transactions.
“Hot money that chases Bitcoin, or any speculative trade, flows out as fast as it entered when prices start falling”
~ Michael Rosen, chief investment officer at Angeles Investments
Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) remained the second-largest fund by inflows despite recording massive cumulative outflows. FBTC has around $11.6 billion in cumulative net inflows and over $16 billion in net assets.
Investors pull a record $3.3B from U.S. Bitcoin ETFs
According to Bloomberg, February’s massive Bitcoin ETF outflows marked the largest monthly exodus since they debuted as investors sought refuge in safer assets amid rising geopolitical tensions and persistent inflation concerns. Farside’s data confirmed negative netflows of about $3.3 billion from U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds. The group’s net outflow came amid a slide of as much as 28%, marking its steepest monthly decline since June 2022. FBTC has posted the biggest outflow among these funds, amounting to more than $1.4 billion.
Raphael Thuin, head of capital market strategies at Tikehau Capital SCA, said the overall crypto market was currently experiencing a notable reversal of the post-election market dynamics that had initially been driven by expectations of a pro-business, pro-market administration following President Trump’s victory. According to the senior director at Wincent Paul Howard, there was a risk that Bitcoin prices could go lower to the mid-$70K level based on CME futures.
According to Bloomberg, the recent exodus of funds from spot Bitcoin ETFs represented only about 3% of their total assets. Mark Connors, founder and chief investment strategist at Risk Dimensions, said Bitcoin’s ETF outflows were driven mostly by ‘arbitrage players like hedge funds playing a basis trade via futures and/or options’.
The smartest crypto minds already read our newsletter. Want in? Join them.
