Key Takeaways
- With bitcoin down 28% from its October peak, investors pulled money from digital asset ETFs at a record pace.
- Crypto ETFs saw $3.5 billion in new withdrawals in November, the biggest outflows in the category’s short history.
- The largest digital asset ETF, the $66.3 billion iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, lost $2.3 billion.
As bitcoin entered a freefall in November, investors in cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds rushed for the exits, pulling a record amount of money from funds that just a few months prior were experiencing huge inflows.
Withdrawals from digital asset ETFs totaled $3.5 billion in November, an exodus that smashed the previous record set this February, when investors yanked just under $2 billion. As recently as July, crypto ETFs had posted their highest monthly inflows in their short history.
The largest ETF in the category, the $66.3 billion iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF IBIT, had $2.3 billion in outflows, while investors pulled nearly half a billion from the second-largest name, the $17.2 billion Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund FBTC. Overall outflows in November amounted to 1.8% of assets under management at the start of month, also a record.
Bitcoin’s Record High and Subsequent Fall
ETFs that invest directly in cryptocurrency are new to the investing world. Most of the ETFs in the Morningstar digital assets category were launched in early 2024, after the SEC granted approval of cryptocurrency ETFs. Flows in and out of US digital asset ETFs have largely tracked bitcoin, which is by far the largest cryptocurrency. It has a market cap of $1.8 trillion, roughly five times that of the closest rival, ethereum.
After a late-2024 crypto rally following the reelection of Donald Trump as US president, bitcoin fell sharply beginning in January, a decline that lasted through early April. The category experienced nearly $2.0 billion in outflows in February and $1.4 billion in March.
When cryptocurrencies rebounded, inflows returned, hitting a record high in July of nearly $12 billion. While flows ebbed, the category kept gathering assets through the summer and into the fall. Bitcoin reached an all-time high of over $126,000 on Oct. 6, having started the year below $100,000.
As bitcoin rose to new heights, investors poured money into digital asset ETFs. In the first two weeks of October, these ETFs recorded nearly $7.1 billion in inflows, compared with just under $5.5 billion for the entire month of September. However, since hitting that high, bitcoin entered a slump that picked up steam in November, culminating in the cryptocurrency falling to a recent low near $84,000 late in the month, with outflows from crypto ETFs following suit.
As bitcoin continued to plunge in November, investors pulled more of their money, with outflows rising from $591.0 million in the first week of November to $2.3 billion by the third week.
The end of November saw an uptick in flows, with ETFs in the category pulling in just over $1 billion as bitcoin prices clawed back above $90,000.
Outflows at the Top
The digital asset ETF category is highly concentrated. While it has 128 funds with $142 billion between them, the five largest funds hold 79% of those assets. The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, the largest fund in the category, has 47% of the category assets.
These top five funds saw a disproportionate amount of the withdrawals in November, with $4.2 billion in outflows between them. Meanwhile, the other 123 ETFs recorded inflows of nearly $700 million. The fund with the largest inflows for November was the $607 million Bitwise Solana Staking ETF BSOL, which pulled in $364 million.
This represents a dramatic turnaround for these funds, which had experienced major asset growth, even without bitcoin’s rise. iShares Bitcoin Trust had averaged an organic growth rate of 4.3% a month for the first 10 months of 2025, but swung to negative 2.6% in November, its worst-ever figure.