Assets in U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs have slid to $77.58 billion, back to levels seen just after Donald Trump’s November 2024 election victory despite a far more favorable regulatory climate.
Outflows have picked up pace lately. Analysts attributed the investor exodus to inflation concerns and AI frenzy.
Bitcoin ETFs: Total net assets. (SoSoValue, Claude)
This is not to say the ETFs didn’t grow in the 19-month period. Hopes that Trump would deliver on his campaign promise of friendlier crypto regulation helped push bitcoin higher, along with ETF assets. Total net assets crossed $90 billion within a week of this election win and went on to hit a record high of $169.54 billion in October 2025.
But since then, these post-election gains have been erased even though the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), under the Trump administration, dropped several high-profile enforcement actions. The U.S. has established a strategic bitcoin reserve and, further, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which seeks to establish jurisdictional boundaries between the SEC and CFTC and give the industry the legal heft, is advancing in Washington.
In other words, the regulatory environment has never been more favorable, yet investors’ response has been to leave, pulling the net assets lower.
These ETFs have registered a net outflow of over $5 billion in four weeks. Cumulative net inflows since inception, which peaked at $62.77 billion in October 2025 when bitcoin was at its all-time high, have since declined by nearly $9 billion to $53.77 billion, the lowest since August last year.
Analysts blame macro factors, especially elevated inflation, for recent outflows from the ETFs.
“ETF outflows reflected short-term pressure as inflation drives the Fed hawkish, while on-chain supply tightening remains intact,” Binance Research said in a report shared with CoinDesk.
Market analyst and former co-founder of 21Shares, Ophelia Snyder, said AI and other trending corners of the financial market are draining capital from crypto.
“You have ETF outflows as investors are increasingly distracted by other narratives competing for attention and capital, whether that’s AI, SpaceX, or other high-profile growth stories. You have ongoing market jitters around geopolitics, the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. jobs data, inflation, and broader macroeconomic uncertainty,” she said in an email.
Bitcoin’s growing divergence from tech stocks raises concerns as AI spending surges, says Quinn Thompson.
What to know:
Lekker Capital CIO Quinn Thompson argues bitcoin remains under pressure due to DAT issues, Strategy’s STRC preferred shares, and quantum computing concerns, contributing to one of the largest divergences between crypto and technology stocks in recent years.
Thompson is also bearish on tech, citing weakening Mag 7 leadership, rising hyperscaler…
