Bitcoin ETFs see record $11B drawdown as 160,000 BTC exit reserves since October 2025

More than 160,000 Bitcoin have drained from US spot ETF reserves since October 2025, a withdrawal worth roughly $11.2 billion that represents the single largest drawdown in Bitcoin ETF history.

The numbers behind the exodus

The drawdown began when ETF holdings peaked in October 2025, and it hasn’t meaningfully reversed since. Of the total 160,000 BTC that have left, over 100,000 BTC exited in 2026 alone, making this the heaviest year of net redemptions since spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in January 2024.

June 2026 delivered the sharpest blow. A single week saw $3.4 billion in outflows, the largest weekly withdrawal on record for these products. Over a 30-day stretch earlier in 2026, a total of $6.35 billion flowed out. At one point, ETFs experienced 13 consecutive days of net outflows, draining $4.4 billion in just under two weeks.

CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost has noted that many ETF positions are now underwater. The average acquisition cost for Bitcoin across these ETF products sits at approximately $73,000. With Bitcoin trading around $60,000 in late June 2026, that means the average ETF holder is sitting on a loss of roughly 18%.

How we got here

When US spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in January 2024, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust and its competitors attracted billions in their first weeks. By the end of 2025, these ETFs had accumulated more than $21 billion in net inflows, coinciding with Bitcoin reaching an all-time high of nearly $126,000.

The flow data tells a story of conviction that peaked alongside price. Once Bitcoin began retreating from its highs, the same institutional investors who rushed in started unwinding their positions. The clustering of outflows around periods of price weakness has repeated consistently throughout 2026.

What this means for investors

The immediate concern is a feedback loop. Large ETF redemptions force fund managers to sell Bitcoin on spot markets to meet withdrawal requests. That selling pressure pushes prices lower, which puts more ETF positions underwater, which triggers more redemptions.

The $73,000 average cost basis is a number worth tracking. If Bitcoin recovers to that level, some selling pressure could ease as underwater positions return to breakeven.

The 13-day streak of consecutive outflows is the kind of extreme reading that technical analysts watch for signs of capitulation. Historically, periods of maximum ETF outflows have occasionally preceded sharp reversals as forced selling exhausts itself.

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