US spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs experienced a significant downturn on Monday, October 13, shedding a combined $755 million, according to data from SoSoValue. This outflow marks one of the largest single-day withdrawals since August 19, when nearly $1 billion exited these investment vehicles. The shift in momentum follows two weeks of strong inflows into both Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, with $3.24 billion and $2.71 billion flowing into Bitcoin ETFs, and $1.3 billion and $488 million into Ethereum ETFs, respectively.
The outflows coincide with renewed trade tensions between the U.S. and China, sparked by confirmation from U.S. President Donald Trump that he would impose a 100% tariff on Chinese imports, which appears to have negatively impacted market sentiment. The news triggered a broad sell-off in the crypto market, erasing over $500 billion from global crypto valuations over the weekend.
Bitcoin ETFs experienced net outflows of $326.5 million. Grayscale's GBTC led the redemptions with $145.3 million in withdrawals, followed by Bitwise's BITB ($115.6 million) and Fidelity's FBTC ($93.2 million). BlackRock's IBIT, however, bucked the trend, attracting $60.4 million in new inflows, partially offsetting the overall outflows for Bitcoin ETFs.
Ethereum ETFs faced even heavier losses, with $428.5 million in net outflows. BlackRock's ETHA led the losses, with approximately $310 million leaving the fund. Notably, none of the Ethereum products recorded any inflows during the day.
According to Vincent Liu, CIO at Kronos Research, the outflows reflect "post-liquidation caution," with investors pausing to await clearer macro signals before reinvesting. Min Jung, Research Associate at Presto Research, suggested that the outflows represent short-term institutional risk management rather than a structural shift in sentiment. Jung anticipates that ETF flows will stabilize as markets absorb the weekend's volatility and broader macro uncertainty. However, she also cautioned that the market will likely remain sensitive to U.S.-China trade headlines, which could continue to drive short-term volatility across crypto and other risk assets.
The prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum reacted negatively to the trade war news. Bitcoin dropped to as low as $103,000, a sharp retreat from its recent all-time high, while Ethereum slipped below the $3,700 support level. While both cryptocurrencies have since recovered partially, they remain down approximately 9.2% and 12.5% over the past week, respectively. On Tuesday, Bitcoin was trading at $112,283, down 2.54%, while Ether was at $4,030, down 3.39%.
