Bitcoin ETFs Continue to See Withdrawals Ahead of Halving Event

According to the latest updates, Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) experienced a net withdrawal of $59.3 million on April 16th, marking the third consecutive day of negative capital flows for these funds. Among these, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) managed to attract only $25.8 million, a modest amount compared to expectations.

Meanwhile, Grayscale’s GBTC saw an outflow of $79 million, and Ark’s Bitcoin ETF also experienced withdrawals, with $12.9 million leaving the fund. These movements occurred in a context where Bitcoin prices remained below the $64,000 mark, as the cryptocurrency market struggled to gather momentum just three days before the much-anticipated halving event.

Although capital outflows from IBIT are slowing, Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, predicts that this fund is likely to surpass GBTC in total assets by the end of the month. Currently, GBTC has dropped to just over $2 billion, while BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF continues to attract investment. However, Balchunas also highlighted that an “odd rally” in Bitcoin could delay this shift.

Moreover, the market sentiment is predominantly pessimistic surrounding the halving event. Gold investment expert Peter Schiff recently commented that Bitcoin is in a stealth bear market as major cryptocurrency stocks have undergone significant declines.

Mining stocks are also severely impacted due to short-term tensions expected to follow the halving event. Even some Bitcoin-supportive analysts anticipate that the largest cryptocurrency could undergo a price correction of at least 40% after the block reward reduction. These developments have also affected ETF flows, leading to a gloomy market sentiment towards Bitcoin.