Bad day for Bitcoin, net $218M withdrawn from ETFs

Investors pulled a net $218 million from US Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, one of their worst daily outflows as demand for risky investments takes a knock from fading hopes for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts.

Thursday’s figure encompasses a $23 million drawdown for the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund, the first since the product began trading on Jan. 11 along with a batch of peers such as BlackRock Inc.’s iShares Bitcoin Trust.

While the group of almost a dozen ETFs broke records on the way to amassing combined assets of about $54 billion to date, demand slumped recently. US inflation data pointing to higher-for-longer borrowing costs has boosted Treasury yields, a poor backdrop for speculative investments like crypto.

“Bottom line, we can expect BTC to take a breather as long as the macro mood continues to support higher yields,” wrote Noelle Acheson, author of the Crypto Is Macro Now newsletter.

The $218 million overall outflow is the fourth-worst for the slew of ETFs. On Wednesday, BlackRock’s fund broke a 71-day streak of consecutive inflows.

Bitcoin was steady at $64,320 as of 8:10 a.m. in London on Friday, down from a mid-March record of $73,798. Hong Kong is due to debut spot-crypto ETFs next week, an event some see as a possible catalyst for increased volatility.

“This is a definite plus for the industry, but will probably not generate floods of inflows on day one,” said Acheson. “The impact will come more from the spread of easy onramps, and from broadening crypto education.”

Copyright Bloomberg News