Spot Bitcoin ETFs Attract $166M as Investors Buy the Dip and Rotate Into Altcoin Funds
Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the United States logged another strong day of demand on Tuesday, pulling in about $166.6 million in fresh capital even as the broader crypto market continued to slide. The latest daily haul pushed cumulative inflows for the week to roughly $311.6 million, almost completely offsetting the prior week’s $318 million in net outflows.
That reversal in flows comes during a period of notable price weakness for Bitcoin. Over the last seven days, BTC has dropped around 13%, briefly slipping below the 68,000-dollar level on Tuesday. Despite the drawdown, investor appetite for spot Bitcoin ETFs has strengthened, extending their current inflow streak to three consecutive trading sessions.
Inflows Nearly Wipe Out Prior Week’s Losses
The renewed buying interest marks a sharp contrast with recent weeks. Spot Bitcoin ETFs had recorded three straight weeks of net outflows, totaling more than $3 billion. Last week alone saw around $318 million leave these products, igniting concerns that the record-breaking ETF demand seen earlier in the year might be cooling.
This week’s inflows are now close to neutralizing that setback. With $311.6 million already added so far, the net balance between the two weeks is almost flat, suggesting that many investors are treating the recent price pullback as an opportunity to re-enter or increase exposure rather than a signal to exit the market.
Analysts tracking exchange-traded crypto products have also pointed to signs that the heavy selling pressure which dominated previous weeks is losing steam. The deceleration in outflows, followed by a return to net inflows, hints at a possible shift in sentiment from short-term profit‑taking toward longer‑term accumulation.
Goldman Sachs Cuts Bitcoin and Ether Exposure
The macro picture for institutional crypto exposure, however, is more nuanced. A recent regulatory filing shows that Goldman Sachs reduced its holdings in several Bitcoin and Ether ETFs during the fourth quarter of 2025.
According to the disclosure, the bank sharply cut its stake in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT). The position was trimmed by around 39%, with the number of shares declining from nearly 70 million in the third quarter to about 40.6 million in the fourth quarter. Even after the reduction, that holding was still worth roughly $2 billion at the time of the filing.
Goldman also pared back positions in other Bitcoin-related products. This included a smaller allocation to the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin ETF (FBTC) and a reduced stake in Bitcoin Depot, a company operating Bitcoin ATMs and related services. In addition, the bank scaled down its exposure to funds tied to Ether, signaling a broader rebalancing across its crypto ETF book rather than a narrow Bitcoin-only move.
First-Time Positions in XRP and Solana ETFs
While trimming Bitcoin and Ether, Goldman Sachs simultaneously opened its first reported positions in ETFs tracking alternative layer-1 assets. The filing revealed new stakes in products linked to XRP and Solana.
The bank acquired approximately 6.95 million shares of XRP ETFs, valued around $152 million. It also purchased about 8.24 million shares of Solana ETFs, worth roughly $104 million. For a major U.S. investment bank, this rotation is noteworthy: it suggests that some large institutional players may be looking beyond the two largest cryptocurrencies, diversifying into a broader basket of digital assets via regulated, exchange-traded vehicles.
This shift does not necessarily indicate a negative view on Bitcoin or Ether. Instead, it may reflect a belief that risk-adjusted returns or growth potential in selected altcoins could be more attractive at current valuations, especially when accessed through structures that fit within traditional portfolio frameworks.
Altcoin ETF Flows Turn Positive
Data on spot altcoin ETFs supports the idea that institutional interest is slowly expanding beyond Bitcoin. On the same day spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $166.6 million, funds tracking major alternative assets also recorded net inflows.
Ether products brought in around $14 million in fresh capital. XRP ETFs added about $3.3 million, while Solana ETFs saw roughly $8.4 million in new money. These are modest figures compared with Bitcoin ETF flows, but they underscore a gradual broadening of the market for regulated crypto investment products.
For portfolio managers, these instruments provide a way to express views on specific blockchains, ecosystems, and use cases without having to deal directly with custody, on-chain transactions, or exchange risk. As more altcoin ETFs launch and mature, the range of crypto exposures available inside conventional investment mandates is likely to expand further.
Long-Term Bitcoin ETF Holders Stay Put
Despite the price slide and the headline-grabbing outflows of recent weeks, most Bitcoin ETF investors appear to be holding their nerve. A senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg estimated that only around 6% of total assets in U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs exited during the recent downturn, indicating that the majority of capital is behaving more like strategic, long-term money than speculative hot flows.
One of the clearest examples is BlackRock’s IBIT. After reaching a peak asset level of about $100 billion, the fund’s assets under management retraced to around $60 billion as prices corrected and some investors took profits. Even so, IBIT remains an outlier in ETF history for how rapidly it gathered assets. According to the same analysis, it is still on track to be remembered as the fastest ETF ever to reach the $60 billion mark, and it could remain in that range for years while retaining that record.
This resilience suggests that many investors who used spot ETFs to gain Bitcoin exposure are not easily shaken out by double‑digit pullbacks. Instead, they appear willing to weather volatility in pursuit of a long-term thesis centered on digital scarcity, macro hedging, or Bitcoin’s role as a high‑beta risk asset.
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What Do These Flows Really Mean for Bitcoin and the Crypto Market?
1. Are Bitcoin ETFs Still Driving the Market?
Spot Bitcoin ETFs continue to play a central role in Bitcoin’s price discovery. While they are not the only driver of BTC’s valuation, sustained inflows provide a persistent source of demand that can help absorb selling pressure from traders, miners, and long‑time holders taking profits.
The near-erasure of last week’s $318 million outflows by this week’s $311.6 million inflows shows that ETF demand remains alive even during corrections. Historically, when traditional investment vehicles in any asset class quickly recover from a period of redemptions, it often signals that investors view pullbacks as buying opportunities rather than the start of a prolonged bear market.
2. Why Are Institutions Rotating From BTC and ETH Into XRP and SOL?
Goldman Sachs’ portfolio shifts illustrate a broader trend that often emerges after a strong rally in a leading asset: rotation. After significant gains in Bitcoin and Ether, some institutional desks may choose to lock in partial profits and redeploy into assets they consider under-owned or earlier in their adoption cycle.
XRP is often framed as a play on cross‑border payments and enterprise-oriented financial infrastructure, while Solana is perceived as a high-performance platform for decentralized applications, particularly in areas like DeFi, NFTs, and on‑chain trading. For large investors, modest allocations to such themes via ETFs provide exposure to alternative growth stories without abandoning the relative safety and familiarity of regulated markets.
This does not mean Bitcoin and Ether are being abandoned; rather, it suggests portfolios are becoming more nuanced and diversified, spreading risk across multiple narratives within the crypto space.
3. Does a 13% Bitcoin Drop Undermine the ETF Bull Case?
A double‑digit weekly decline in Bitcoin often reignites skepticism around its suitability for mainstream portfolios. However, volatility has always been part of the Bitcoin proposition, and most institutional allocators who entered via ETFs did so with that in mind.
The fact that inflows returned even as prices were falling indicates that some investors see those drops as tactical entry points. A key test for the ETF bull case has always been whether new buyers would step in during downturns rather than only chasing momentum on the way up. This week’s numbers suggest that test is, at least for now, being passed.
Moreover, with only about 6% of ETF assets exiting during the sell‑off, the underlying investor base appears more stable than many expected at the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs.
4. How Important Are Altcoin ETF Inflows Compared With Bitcoin?
In absolute terms, the tens of millions flowing into Ether, XRP, and Solana ETFs are small compared with Bitcoin’s daily ETF volumes. However, the significance lies in direction and breadth, not just size.
Early positive flows into multiple altcoin products signal that institutional investors are beginning to treat crypto less as a single-asset story and more as a differentiated asset class with internal sectors and themes. Over time, this can lead to more sophisticated strategies: sector rotation within crypto, multi‑asset baskets, and factor-based approaches (for example, distinguishing between store-of-value assets, smart‑contract platforms, and payment tokens).
That evolution can reduce Bitcoin’s dominance at the margin but also strengthen the overall legitimacy of digital assets in institutional portfolios.
5. What Should Individual Investors Take Away From These Numbers?
For retail and smaller professional investors, the recent data provides several practical insights:
– ETF flows matter, but context is crucial. A headline number like $166 million in inflows is bullish on the surface, but it must be weighed against price moves, broader macro conditions, and prior weeks’ flows.
– Institutional behavior is not monolithic. While some large players are trimming Bitcoin and Ether, others are adding via ETFs. Net flows are the end result of many opposing strategies.
– Diversification is becoming the norm. The move into XRP and Solana ETFs highlights that even major banks see value in not being concentrated solely in BTC and ETH.
– Volatility remains a given. Even with ETFs smoothing access and offering regulated routes to exposure, Bitcoin and altcoins remain high‑volatility assets. Position sizing and risk management remain critical.
6. Could ETF Inflows Alone Push Bitcoin to New Highs?
ETF inflows are a powerful tailwind, but they do not operate in a vacuum. Bitcoin’s trajectory will also depend on:
– The macro environment (interest rates, inflation expectations, liquidity conditions).
– Regulatory developments that can either encourage or restrict mainstream adoption.
– On-chain dynamics such as miner behavior and long‑term holder activity.
– Broader risk sentiment across equities, bonds, and other alternative assets.
If ETF demand remains consistently positive while macro conditions are at least neutral, ETFs can amplify upward moves and help sustain higher price levels. However, they cannot fully offset a deeply risk‑off environment or sudden regulatory shocks.
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In sum, the recent rebound in spot Bitcoin ETF inflows—nearly erasing last week’s outflows—suggests that institutional and retail demand for regulated Bitcoin exposure remains resilient despite price volatility. At the same time, portfolio rotations by major banks into XRP and Solana ETFs highlight a gradual but important broadening of institutional interest beyond Bitcoin and Ether. Together, these trends point to a maturing market in which crypto is increasingly treated as a complex, multi‑asset investment universe rather than a single‑coin story.