U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded their ninth consecutive session of net outflows on Thursday (May 29), with $228.88 million leaving the 13-fund complex and BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) leading with outflows of $177.94 million.
The outflow streak follows the complex's heaviest single-day redemption on Wednesday (May 27), when the 11 U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETFs lost a combined $733.43 million, according to SoSoValue data. BlackRock's IBIT accounted for $527.84 million of that figure — the fund's second-largest single-day net outflow on record, missing its all-time high of $528.3 million (January 30) by roughly $500,000.
Fidelity's FBTC lost $60.30 million and Grayscale's GBTC bled $104.76 million on the same day, per Benzinga. GBTC's cumulative outflows since its conversion to a spot ETF have now surpassed $26 billion.
The trigger was Iran. Bitcoin fell below $73,000 on Thursday (trading at $72,978 in Asian hours), down 3.4% over 24 hours, after U.S. airstrikes on an Iranian military site near the Strait of Hormuz reignited a conflict markets had begun to price out. ETF redemptions and Bitcoin's price decline reinforced each other — forced selling of the underlying asset to settle investor exits accelerated the price drop, which prompted further redemptions.
May has now swung sharply from accumulation to distribution. After $3.29 billion in inflows through mid-May, the market recorded $1.26 billion in outflows over a six-session stretch starting roughly May 20, ECIKS.org reported. Bitcoin has dropped from above $82,000 on May 6 to under $73,000 — an 11% decline in three weeks.
One clarifying detail from Tuesday (May 26): a single investor sold $1.29 billion of IBIT shares in one dark-pool block trade, CoinDesk reported. That is not the same as a net outflow — dark-pool trades are privately negotiated and don't directly translate to redemptions. IBIT's actual net outflow on Tuesday was $192.44 million. The block trade is notable as signal, but the math matters.
President Donald Trump weighed in on the crypto market on May 27 with a post on TruthSocial: "The new Frontier of Finance is being Built in America, and 'TRUMP' will NEVER let Crypto down!" — prompting the now-infrequent inverse response in crypto markets. The comment preceded Wednesday's outflows. The CLARITY Act, which Trump has repeatedly called on the Senate to pass, still awaits a full floor vote. Approval odds sat at 56% as of Thursday.
