US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded $171 million in outflows on Thursday, the largest single-day redemptions since March 3, when funds saw $348 million leave. According to Farside Investors, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) led outflows with $41 million, followed by Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) with $32 million, ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) with $30.5 million, and Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC) with $24 million.
The redemptions interrupted a recent run of demand: ETFs have taken in $1.36 billion so far in March and were poised for their first month of net accumulation since October 2025, when ETFs logged $3.42 billion in net inflows, per Sosovalue.
US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs are widely watched as a gauge of institutional appetite for Bitcoin (BTC). BTC slipped below $70,000 on Thursday, down about 4.7% over the past week and trading near $67,780 at the time of reporting, according to CoinMarketCap.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said the funds are ‘‘one good day away’’ from reversing year-to-date outflows and praised their resilience amid Bitcoin’s roughly 46% drop from the $126,198 all-time high reached in October 2025. For perspective, Balchunas noted that when gold fell roughly 40% about a decade ago it lost about one-third of its investor base.
Traders linked the ETF sell-off to geopolitical developments. Reports that the US Department of War is moving thousands of troops to the Middle East, cited by Reuters, triggered risk-off flows. On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced a 10-day extension to a ceasefire on Iranian energy infrastructure, moving the deadline to April 6 and saying negotiations remained constructive.
Market participants nonetheless remained wary of an unexpected weekend escalation. Kyle Rodda, senior financial analyst at Capital.com, told Cointelegraph that headline risk and mixed signals about talks between the US and Iran, coupled with the movement of assets and personnel toward the region, look to be preparations for a limited ground invasion—heightening investor jitters after earlier US and Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28 amid ongoing negotiations.
Separately, coverage has highlighted filings and adjustments among institutional Bitcoin ETF applicants, including an amended S-1 filing from Morgan Stanley for a prospective fund.
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