US-based Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, which are widely tracked to gauge institutional sentiment, just shed a whopping $1.2 billion, according to the most recent data.
Alex Thorn, Galaxy Digital’s head of firmwide research, has noted that this massive wave of withdrawals is actually the third most negative week for these products.
the spot bitcoin ETP outflows continued this week with -$1.2b making it the 3rd most negative week of 2026 pic.twitter.com/f7ri6sVAqb
— Alex Thorn (@intangiblecoins) May 23, 2026
That said, Bitcoin is down less than 2% over the past week despite the brutal outflows.
Relentless outflows
This week, Bitcoin ETFs started bleeding right out of the gate. On Monday, May 18, the funds experienced a massive gut punch, with $647 million being withdrawn in a single day.
Tuesday brought very little respite to the beleaguered cryptocurrency community, with an additional $331.05 million in outflows.
The bleeding slowed slightly by mid-week, dipping to a $70.47 million loss on Wednesday.
Throughout the week, the painful downward trend continued to persist.
Thursday and Friday capped off the trading week with back-to-back six-figure losses. The widely tracked products haemorrhaged a whopping $100.82 million and $105.19 million on these days, respectively.
Still massive
However, those who track Bitcoin ETF flows on a weekly basis should not miss the forest for the trees.
This week’s $1.2 billion drawdown is undoubtedly severe, but the ETF products remain massive.
Total net assets across all U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs are currently sitting at $98.87 billion.
These funds still control a substantial 6.49% of Bitcoin’s entire global market capitalization.
Short-term institutional flows are, of course, highly reactive to current market turbulence caused by dropping rate cut odds as well as other headwinds that are affecting risk assets.
