Crypto funds reported $206 million weekly outflow as post-halving ETF demand steadied

CoinShares reported on April 22, 2024, that digital-asset investment products had recorded an estimated $206 million in net outflows during the preceding reporting week. The second consecutive weekly withdrawal offered a measured counterpoint to expectations that Bitcoin’s fourth halving would immediately intensify institutional demand.

Bitcoin products accounted for $192 million of the reported withdrawals. Ethereum products lost $34 million, their sixth consecutive week of outflows, while multi-asset products received $9 million. CoinShares also calculated that exchange-traded-product trading volume had slipped to approximately $18 billion and represented 28% of total bitcoin trading volume, compared with 55% one month earlier.

These were fund-flow estimates, not movements directly into or out of the Bitcoin or Ethereum networks. They measured subscriptions and redemptions across investment products in CoinShares’ coverage universe, which was broader than the group of U.S. spot-bitcoin ETFs alone.

U.S. withdrawals dominated the weekly result

CoinShares attributed $244 million of the regional outflow to U.S. products. Canada and Switzerland partly offset that result with estimated inflows of $30 million and $8 million, respectively, while Germany registered an $8 million outflow.

The U.S. spot-bitcoin ETF segment illustrates why coverage definitions matter. Farside Investors’ fund-by-fund table records approximately $204.3 million of net outflows from April 15 through April 19. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust produced the largest negative contribution, while the newer BlackRock and Fidelity products continued to attract capital. Blockworks separately reported the same weekly pattern and identified approximately $458 million leaving GBTC over those five sessions.

CoinShares’ $206 million global figure and Farside’s approximately $204.3 million U.S. spot-fund figure should not be treated as competing estimates of one identical universe. CoinShares included multiple assets, countries and product structures; Farside’s table covered the U.S. spot-bitcoin funds.

The April 22 session showed a modest reversal

Farside’s dated table records a $62.2 million net inflow for U.S. spot-bitcoin ETFs on April 22. Fidelity’s FBTC received $34.8 million, ARKB received $22.6 million and BlackRock’s IBIT received $19.7 million. Additional inflows brought gross positive flows to $97.2 million, partly offset by a $35 million GBTC outflow.

That one-session reversal did not erase the preceding week’s withdrawals, but it showed that the institutional channel remained active after the halving. Bitcoin’s subsidy had fallen from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block at approximately 00:14 GMT on April 20.

Reuters reported bitcoin at $66,300 at 14:15 GMT on April 22, up 3.4% during the session. The Reuters dispatch did not identify a specific execution venue, so that figure is an indicative contemporaneous market mark rather than a universal close for an asset trading continuously across exchanges.

What the evidence established

The verified record showed cooling weekly demand, not wholesale institutional retreat. It also did not establish that interest-rate expectations or the halving caused the observed flows. CoinShares offered higher-for-longer U.S. interest-rate expectations as its interpretation, while Reuters reported that market participants were emphasizing geopolitics and broader risk sentiment.

The defensible April 22 conclusion was narrower: regulated crypto investment products had suffered a second weekly outflow, but U.S. spot-bitcoin ETFs began the post-halving trading week with a modest net inflow. Neither result, standing alone, established a durable direction for bitcoin demand or price.