At the close of the year, U.S. Bitcoin ETFs, after facing a series of daily outflows for an extended period, experienced significant influxes on Friday instead.

Although the Ethereum equivalents initially found themselves in a different part of the room following the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) impact on the broader market, they have predominantly shown positive growth since mid-December.

BTC ETFs Are Back

In the heart of December, the FOMC meeting left quite an impact on my Bitcoin investments as a U.S.-based crypto investor. After an impressive run following the presidential elections, where we collectively funneled billions into regulated Bitcoin financial instruments within weeks, there was a sudden shift. Instead of pouring more money in, we began to withdraw funds from our Bitcoin holdings.

On December 19, we experienced the most significant single-day withdrawal of approximately $671.9 million. Over the following eight trading days up to January 2, a total of around $2 billion was withdrawn on seven out of those nine days.

On Friday, a long-standing negative trend was finally reversed as Bitcoin ETFs reported an impressive inflow of $908.1 million in total. Leading the charge was Fidelity’s FBTC with $357 million, closely followed by BlackRock’s IBIT at $253.1 million and Ark Invest’s ARKB with $222.6 million. Not a single fund experienced any outflows during this period.

As a researcher, I found myself pleasantly surprised by the significant turnaround over the course of the week. Initially, we saw substantial outflows totaling $415.1 million on Monday and another $242.3 million on Thursday. However, Friday’s inflow of $256 million, coupled with the minimal outflow of $5.3 million on Tuesday, resulted in a net positive inflow for the week, amounting to approximately $250.7 million.

The price of Bitcoin showed significant fluctuations throughout the week. Initially, it experienced a steep drop on Monday due to substantial withdrawals that pushed the value down to around $91,300. Yet, by the latter part of the week, there was an influx of investments causing the price to surge nearly up to $99,000.

Ethereum ETFs’ Landscape

Contrary to Bitcoin ETFs, Ethereum-tracking funds experienced fewer instances of negative returns following the mentioned Fed meeting. There were withdrawals on December 19th and 20th, however, there was an influx of investments in the subsequent days.

Last week had a less optimistic tone due to a higher volume of withdrawals compared to deposits. Specifically, there were withdrawals of $55.5 million on Monday and $77.5 million on Thursday. Despite positive inflows of $36 million on Tuesday and $58.9 million on Friday, these could not offset the previous outflows, resulting in a total loss of $36.1 million by the end of the week.

Over the past week, I’ve observed a significant surge in Ethereum’s price, with an impressive 6.5% growth. Interestingly, this is more than double the increase experienced by Bitcoin during the same period. At present, Ethereum’s native token hovers above $3,600, as reported at the time of writing.

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2025-01-05 19:02