Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) broke a 12-day inflow streak on Tuesday as investors withdrew a net $78 million from the U.S.-listed products, data from SoSoValue shows.
Bitwise’s BITB led with $70 million in net outflows, followed by Ark’s ARKB at $52 million and Grayscale’s GBTC at $27 million. BlackRock’s IBIT was the only product with a net inflow, $72 million, lifting its net assets under management above $22 billion for the first time.
The bitcoin ETF outflows came after strong inflow days on Monday and Friday, when they took on more than $420 million each day.
Despite the outflows, BTC prices remained steady above $66,000, losing just over 0.5% in the past 24 hours. The broad-based CoinDesk 20 (CD20), a liquid index of the largest tokens, minus stablecoins, lost 0.6%.
Traders said they expect the current lull in price action to continue until fresh commentary from U.S. presidential candidates, which may shed light on the future of cryptocurrency regulation in the country.
“The market is still awaiting a few key catalysts to take effect,” Alice Liu, research lead at CoinMarketCap, said in an email. “The market is in ‘wait and see’ mode ahead of Trump’s speech at the Nashville Conference on July 25th, where it is anticipated that he may announce BTC to be used in the national reserves.”
“If this does happen, it will trigger a parabolic rise in Bitcoin’s price,” Liu said.
Singapore-based QCP Capital said in a Telegram broadcast on Wednesday that “prices may remain subdued until momentum builds up leading to the elections” as sentiment was dented with the “potential selling pressure from the US Government and Mt Gox.”