Summary
- For the week ending July 17, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows of $75.7 million.
- This marks the second consecutive week of positive inflows following eight weeks of outflows totaling over $8.2 billion.
- The recovery of $273.1 million over the last two weeks represents only 3.3% of the capital withdrawn from these funds between mid-May and early July, which saw June as the most challenging month for Bitcoin ETFs since their January 2024 introduction.
Bitcoin ETFs have achieved consecutive weeks of positive performance for the first time since early May.
According to data from SoSoValue, the 13 U.S. spot Bitcoin funds saw net inflows of $75.7 million for the week ending July 17, following a previous week's inflow of $197.4 million, resulting in a total of $273.1 million over the two weeks.
When inflows surpass outflows, it indicates that retail investors are purchasing more Bitcoin than they are selling.
The impressive figure of $273 million seems significant, but when viewed in context, it’s a small recovery. From mid-May to early July, these funds experienced eight weeks of net outflows, depleting over $8.2 billion. In June 2026 alone, there was a loss of approximately $4.5 billion, marking it as the worst month for these products on record.
The current recovery of $273 million equates to roughly 3.3 cents for every dollar that was lost.
Even during this latest week of positive inflows, there was volatility with a single-day withdrawal of $424.7 million on Monday, the largest since June 26, triggered by renewed U.S.-Iran military tensions. However, investors reversed their course in the following days, ending the week positively.
Gold's Legacy
Bitcoin ETFs, which are exchange-traded funds that hold Bitcoin on behalf of investors, eliminate the need for personal crypto wallet management. When these funds launched in early 2024, after years of SEC rejections, they initially attracted billions in new capital into the Bitcoin market.
However, recent market downturns have led many Bitcoin ETF investors to withdraw their investments.
Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, presented a framework on July 17 that offers valuable insights for current Bitcoin ETF holders. He suggests that the 22-year history of gold ETFs, particularly GLD—the first gold ETF on a U.S. exchange—serves as the most relevant guide for Bitcoin ETF investors.
This comparison is based on a fundamental structural similarity: both Bitcoin and gold are categorized as "non-yielding stores of value"—they do not provide dividends, earnings, or government guarantees like stocks and bonds. Their prices are solely influenced by demand, making them highly reactive to changes in investor sentiment.
Bitcoin ETFs Likely to Mirror Gold's History of Triumph and Pain.. New from me on how gold ETFs' 22-year history may offer the closest roadmap yet for Bitcoin ETF investors. Both are wrappers around non-yielding stores of value that generate no cash flow, leaving investor… pic.twitter.com/3C4tZYPLCp
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) July 17, 2026
The history of GLD shows both successes and challenges. The fund gained such rapid popularity that it briefly surpassed SPY, the largest stock market ETF globally, to become the biggest ETF for one day in 2011, only to spend the next eight years trying to reclaim that status.
Balchunas perceives a "spiritual parallel" with IBIT: BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF, which briefly exceeded $100 billion in assets last October, aligning closely with Bitcoin's all-time high above $126,000. Following that, Bitcoin's value has decreased by about half, currently trading near $64,000.
For long-term holders, a 50% decline is historically not unprecedented in the crypto market.
“Bitcoin ETFs may be following the same script: spectacular gains, painful drawdowns and recoveries that may test investors' patience,” Balchunas noted.
In recent months, BlackRock's IBIT has sold nearly 100,000 BTC to manage redemptions, leaving it with just over 733,000 BTC under management. Balchunas expresses cautious optimism, suggesting that historically, every cycle of gold ETFs has resulted in significant price increases after downturns. “Two steps forward, one step back,” he stated, while cautioning that the recovery process may take longer than many investors anticipate.
On July 1, Citigroup took the opposite stance, revising its 12-month Bitcoin price target from $112,000 to $82,000 and lowering its projected ETF inflows for the upcoming year to zero, down from an earlier forecast of $10 billion, citing negative flows, stalled U.S. crypto regulations, and declining institutional interest.
The total net assets across all 13 spot Bitcoin ETFs now stand at $77.7 billion, down from over $106 billion before the outflow trend began in mid-May.