BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) recorded $1.21 billion in net outflows across five trading sessions, nearly all of the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF sector's $1.28 billion weekly outflow, according to Farside Investors' daily flow table reviewed on November 7.

Once IBIT is excluded, the week looks almost flat. The remaining U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs combined for a net outflow of just $72.2 million, meaning BlackRock's fund alone produced 94.4% of the sector's net weekly figure. That share is measured against the net total rather than against gross redemptions at any single fund.

Scale and a Lengthening Streak

Much of that dominance comes down to size. IBIT held $60.7 billion in net assets on November 6, according to its iShares fund page, which puts the week's outflow at roughly 2% of the fund. The fund began trading in January 2024 among the first wave of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs and has since grown into the sector's largest by assets, so its weekly tally sets the sector's headline number more often than any rival's. A drain of that proportion is notable for a product of this scale, and in dollar terms it outweighed the combined flows of every smaller competitor.

The withdrawals also predate this week's data. Friday marked IBIT's sixth consecutive session of net outflows, a streak that began on October 30. Its two largest single-day withdrawals bracketed the week: $405.3 million on Monday and $403 million on Friday.

The same concentration has worked in IBIT's favor before. Coindoo covered a week when IBIT's inflows kept the sector positive while other funds lost money. In both weeks, one product decided whether the headline number finished green or red.

Fidelity Carried Wednesday's Inflow and Thursday's Exit

Monday and Tuesday followed the weekly pattern. IBIT lost $500.3 million across the two sessions, while the other funds moved by no more than $20.6 million on either day.

Wednesday produced the week's only sector inflow. IBIT lost $201.2 million, but the other funds took in $275.8 million, with Fidelity's FBTC supplying $236.7 million of that amount. The sector closed the day $74.6 million positive.

FBTC gave most of that back the next day. Its $199.9 million net outflow on Thursday was the largest of any fund that session and nearly twice IBIT's $105 million. Grayscale's GBTC, which converted from a closed-end Bitcoin trust when the spot ETF sector launched in January 2024, lost $49.9 million, and the remaining funds shed a combined $75.4 million. Outside IBIT, Thursday's withdrawals reached $325.2 million, about three times BlackRock's figure, and the sector's $430.2 million outflow was the week's largest.

Thursday's exit coincided with a sharp drop in Bitcoin's price. Fortune's daily price check put BTC at about $76,024 on Friday morning, 5.2% below the $80,221 it fetched 24 hours earlier. The flow table records timing but not cause, so it cannot show whether falling prices prompted the redemptions or the redemptions added to the fall.

Friday returned to the week's dominant pattern. IBIT lost $403 million, or 98% of the sector's $411.9 million outflow. FBTC took in $42.8 million, and smaller withdrawals elsewhere left the non-IBIT group $8.9 million negative.

For the week as a whole, FBTC finished $93.1 million positive. Its Wednesday inflow and Thursday outflow netted to $36.8 million, Friday added $42.8 million, and Monday and Tuesday together contributed $13.5 million. The table records each fund's net creations and redemptions, so it cannot show whether money leaving IBIT moved into FBTC.

BlackRock's Ether Fund Mirrored the Pattern on Friday

Farside's Ethereum ETF data shows $93.3 million leaving U.S. Ether funds on Friday, $90.8 million of it from BlackRock's ETHA. The U.S. spot Ether fund sector has been trading since July 2024. That gave BlackRock's two flagship crypto funds 98% of the Bitcoin outflow and 97% of the Ether outflow in the same session. A single day is too short to establish that the same investors were behind both.

What a $1.21 Billion Outflow Measures

IBIT is a passive trust built to track Bitcoin's price, holding the bitcoin behind its shares directly rather than through derivatives, and its prospectus makes clear that the sponsor does not attempt to time the market. The outflow therefore reflects decisions by the fund's shareholders, not a bearish call by BlackRock.

Those decisions reach the trust through authorized participants, the broker-dealers permitted to create and redeem IBIT shares directly. They deal only in baskets of 22.64 BTC, worth about $1.71 million each on November 6 according to iShares, which means Friday's $403 million outflow equals roughly 235 baskets returned to the trust. Redemptions on that scale typically follow heavier selling than buying of IBIT shares on the exchange, with authorized participants taking the surplus shares and handing them back. The same mechanics, run in reverse, are how inflows are absorbed. The process kept pricing tight: IBIT's shares closed Thursday within 0.02% of the value of the bitcoin behind them.

Since the SEC permitted in-kind creations and redemptions for crypto exchange-traded products, authorized participants can receive bitcoin instead of cash. What they do next, whether holding it, selling it, or using it in another trade, is not disclosed, so $1.21 billion of IBIT outflows does not equal $1.21 billion of spot Bitcoin sold. Flows are also separate from the price-driven decline in IBIT's asset value, which shrank as Bitcoin dropped regardless of how many shares were redeemed.

The Case Against an IBIT-Only Reading

The strongest objection to treating this as an IBIT-specific story is size. The largest fund will usually post the largest dollar flows in either direction, so its share of a weekly total partly reflects its weight rather than unusual behavior among its investors. Thursday also showed that the rest of the market can produce a bigger daily outflow than IBIT when selling spreads.

The five sessions from November 9 to 13 offer a direct test of which reading fits the data:

• Pressure stays with IBIT. IBIT extends its outflow streak while the other funds stay close to flat or net positive.
• Selling widens. Non-IBIT funds post another session in which their combined outflow exceeds IBIT's.
• The streak breaks. IBIT records its first net inflow since the run of withdrawals began.

Source: Coindoo.