U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF flows turned negative for January after a wave of outflows this week totaling nearly $1 billion, according to data from SoSoValue. The shift came as the broader cryptocurrency market experienced a sharp sell-off.
On Thursday, cryptocurrency investment products saw heavy withdrawals as total crypto market capitalization fell by roughly 6%. Funds tracking Bitcoin and Ether recorded close to $1 billion in combined outflows, marking one of the largest weekly pullbacks so far this year.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs led the decline, posting $817.9 million in net outflows. This exceeded the previous week’s $708.7 million withdrawal and marked the largest single-day outflow since November 2025.
The downturn in crypto markets coincided with weakness across other asset classes. Gold prices dropped about 4% after recently surging above $5,300, while equity markets also came under pressure. Market participants pointed to renewed tariff threats from Donald Trump and growing concerns around AI-linked technology stocks following a sharp sell-off in Microsoft shares.
Bitcoin ETF flows turn negative for January
Bitcoin-linked funds extended losses earlier in the week, with outflows of $147.4 million on Tuesday and $19.6 million on Wednesday. By Thursday, cumulative weekly outflows had reached $978 million, pushing January flows firmly into negative territory after another $1 billion exited funds last week.
So far this month, spot Bitcoin ETFs have recorded approximately $1.1 billion in net outflows. Even so, these products remain a sizable part of the market, holding around $107.65 billion in assets under management, equivalent to roughly 6.5% of Bitcoin’s total market capitalization of about $1.65 trillion.
Altcoin ETFs also see sustained outflows
Negative sentiment extended to altcoin investment products. Spot Ether ETFs reported $155.6 million in outflows, while XRP-linked funds saw $92.9 million withdrawn. Solana ETFs experienced smaller outflows of $2.2 million, following modest inflows earlier in the week.
With about $16.75 billion in assets under management, Ether ETFs represent close to 5% of Ethereum’s total market value of roughly $330 billion.
According to an update from CoinShares, total assets under management across crypto exchange-traded products stood at $178 billion by the end of last week, accounting for around 5.7% of the entire crypto market.
At the time of writing, overall cryptocurrency market capitalization was estimated at $2.92 trillion, down from a peak above $3 trillion just a day earlier.
Beyond macro pressures, analysts at CryptoQuant highlighted elevated leverage as a key contributor to the sell-off. The firm noted that high-risk positions on decentralized derivatives platforms amplified losses, with tens of millions of dollars in long positions liquidated within hours.
