U.S. bitcoin funds lost $515.9 million in October despite IBIT inflows

U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded products finished October with an estimated $515.9 million of net redemptions, even though BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF recorded an estimated $932.1 million of net creations during the month. The split shows why the group total alone can obscure where demand is concentrated: excluding IBIT, the other products lost about $1.45 billion over the 22 U.S. trading sessions from October 1 through October 30.

Those figures are Coinburn calculations from Farside Investors’ fund-by-fund table, which reports flows in U.S. dollars. They describe creations and redemptions in listed products, not exchange trading volume, direct spot purchases at a particular time, or the behavior of every institutional bitcoin holder.

One session reversed the final week

The decisive move came on Friday, October 30, the latest completed U.S. session before Coinburn’s November 2 publication. Farside recorded a $643.2 million group outflow. That single session more than offset the $440.8 million of combined inflows recorded over the four sessions from October 26 through October 29, leaving the five-session week with a net $202.4 million outflow by Coinburn’s calculation.

Friday’s redemptions were spread across five products. Farside attributed $233.7 million to IBIT, $201.0 million to Fidelity’s FBTC, $129.5 million to ARKB, $53.3 million to GBTC and $25.7 million to BITB. The remaining seven products in Farside’s 12-fund table were recorded at zero for the session. Zero in that table means no reported net flow; it does not mean there was no secondary-market trading in the shares.

The Block separately reported a $643.3 million Friday total using SoSoValue data, a difference of $100,000 from Farside’s figure. That small mismatch is a reminder that data providers can use different update times, rounding conventions or revisions. Coinburn uses the Farside series consistently for the calculations in this article rather than blending the two datasets.

IBIT carried a divided month

The monthly result was not a uniform withdrawal from every product. Coinburn’s sum of Farside’s daily IBIT cells produces a $932.1 million October inflow. Subtracting that from the group’s negative $515.9 million result implies approximately $1.448 billion of net outflows across the other 11 products combined.

BlackRock’s official product page identifies IBIT as a Nasdaq-listed trust intended to reflect bitcoin’s price and says it holds bitcoin directly. It also states that the trust is not an investment company registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. That structure gives shareholders bitcoin exposure through a listed security, but it does not make an IBIT creation equivalent to a disclosed end-investor spot purchase on a crypto exchange.

Concentration matters because a positive result at the largest product can coexist with broad weakness elsewhere. It also limits what can be inferred from the aggregate. The October data establish a net movement of capital through the fund-share creation and redemption mechanism; they do not identify the investors, their motives, or whether the flows caused any bitcoin price move.

What the November open can establish

October is complete in Farside’s table through Friday, October 30. Monday, November 2 is a new U.S. trading session, so it is outside the measurement window and cannot yet confirm whether Friday’s withdrawal was a one-day reset or the start of a longer sequence.

Farside warns that its table is generated automatically and may contain errors or inaccuracies. Issuer data can also be revised after the first publication. The useful conclusion is therefore narrow: October’s final reported fund flow was negative, and IBIT’s positive month concealed larger combined redemptions in the rest of the group. Any claim about November demand requires the next completed session and a fresh reconciliation of all 12 products.