Bitcoin ETF flows turn negative, IBIT holds the line

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs broke their month‑long winning streak with roughly $903 million in net outflows for Sept. 22–26, according to SoSoValue.

Activity didn’t dry up though: weekly trading stayed firm near $18.5 billion. The bigger story is breadth and price. Assets under management (AUM) slid from about $152.3 billion to $143.6 billion week over week, telling you BTC’s pullback amplified redemptions. In other words, money wasn’t fleeing the market as much as it was getting repriced and reshuffled.

After four green weeks, Bitcoin ETFs flipped red: about $900M out for Sept. 22–26 as volumes stayed firm and AUM eased toward $143.6B with BTC’s pullback. Source: SoSoValue

The weekly pattern was bookended by selling. Four of five sessions finished in the red; only Wednesday printed a modest inflow. Volumes peaked on Thursday while flows were still negative, and Friday delivered the largest withdrawal despite lighter trading. That mix looks like mid‑week rebalancing followed by continued de‑risking into weakness–position changes rather than a broad exit.

Leadership also narrowed. Demand clustered in a single product: IBIT (iShares Bitcoin Trust, BlackRock) finished the week around +1.53K BTC, led by +1.15K BTC on Wednesday and +704 BTC on Thursday. That wasn’t enough to offset steady redemptions elsewhere. FBTC (Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund) saw roughly −6.58K BTC for the week, with heavy prints on Monday (−2.40K BTC) and Friday (−2.76K BTC). Additional drags came from ARKB (ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, −1.08K BTC), GBTC (Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF, −0.75K BTC) and BITB (Bitwise Bitcoin ETF, −0.82K BTC). The takeaway for traders: breadth matters. When one ticker carries the load and peers are bleeding, rallies are fragile and reversals bite faster.

Even so, September doesn’t read as capitulation. Month‑to‑date flows remain positive (≈$2.6B), and the five‑week run since late August is still net green (≈$3.0B). With participation intact and cash rotating, this looks more like a positioning reset than the end of demand. The hinge for next week is twofold: whether leadership broadens beyond IBIT and whether BTC stabilizes enough to stop AUM from sliding. If those two flip, the tape has room to return to green without heroic volumes.