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Bitcoin ETFs Lose $681 Million in a Week, the Worst Since June, as Traders Watch Wednesday's CPI Report

Spot funds ended a three-week inflow run, Fidelity and BlackRock led the withdrawals, and bitcoin still held in the low $80,000s while ether tested its own floor.

Outspoken Digest Crypto Desk

Tuesday, October 13, 2026/2 min read

A close-up of a gold-coloured physical bitcoin collector coin on a grey surface, photographed in October 2013, a file photograph illustrative of bitcoin and not of the exchange-traded funds
Photo: AntanaCoins via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Bitcoin's institutional bid took a week off, and the market noticed. US spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded a net outflow of $681 million from 5 to 9 October, ending three straight weeks of net inflows, TokenPost reported, citing SoSoValue data.

It was the heaviest weekly withdrawal since June, according to CoinDesk as relayed by BlockchainReporter. The fund flows still came with a steadier price: bitcoin traded above $84,000 on Monday in CoinDesk's numbers, Fortune had it at $83,388.63 at 6:45 a.m. Eastern, and a ticker later in the day showed it near $82,500. The week's low was about $80,400.

Which bitcoin ETFs saw the biggest outflows?

Fidelity's FBTC lost the most, $380 million, followed by Ark and 21Shares' ARKB at $207 million, TokenPost said. Daily figures show where the damage was concentrated. On 7 October the funds shed $484.9 million, led by BlackRock's IBIT at $207.7 million, and on 8 October another $244.1 million, led by FBTC at $197.1 million. Friday brought a small $21.1 million inflow. The week before had seen about $241.1 million come in.

Total net assets across the products still stood at $105.84 billion, or 6.38 percent of bitcoin's market value, with cumulative net inflows of $57.11 billion. Fidelity's FBTC has taken in $10.52 billion cumulatively and ARKB $1.19 billion, so one week of selling does not undo that. Morgan Stanley's MSBT was the only notable gainer, with the week's largest inflow at about $7.8 million, small beside the exits. It does remove the easy argument that funds only ever buy.

What does the CPI report mean for bitcoin?

The September inflation report arrives on Wednesday, and BlockchainReporter said a hot reading could push bitcoin back toward $82,000 support while a cooler one would support the macro reprieve. We last looked at the market when bitcoin was holding near $77,000 as rate rise odds climbed, and rate expectations are still the main thing it is trading against.

Context matters for the numbers. The outflows came in the same week that the Treasury market was setting 24-year yield highs, and it is tempting to connect them: when a safe asset pays more than 5 percent, the case for holding a fund that pays nothing gets harder to make to a pension or an adviser. That is our reading, not something the flow data proves.

Is ether following bitcoin?

Ether was trading near $2,510 on Monday evening, testing its 50-day moving average at about $2,503, with the 20-day average near $2,592 acting as a ceiling, FXStreet said. That leaves ether in a narrow band, with neither buyers nor sellers in control. BitMine, the treasury company, now holds 6.028 million ETH after buying 12,532 more last week, and its chairman Thomas Lee said he sees the potential for "the largest ever crypto bull market." That is a forecast from someone who owns a lot of the asset, and it should be read that way.

The week ahead is simple to state. A cooler CPI would let the funds' flows turn around, and a hotter one would test whether $80,000 is a floor or a number on a screen.

Published in The Outspoken Digest

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