Bitcoin ETFs See Biggest Inflow Since May, BlackRock Accounts for 83%

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs pulled in $606.29 million on Thursday, their biggest single-day haul since May 1, according to SoSoValue. That beats Wednesday's $517.19 million and extends the inflow streak to four sessions.

The four-day run—$297.56 million Monday, $189.30 million Tuesday, then Wednesday and Thursday—comes to roughly $1.61 billion in all. August now stands at $2.07 billion, the best month of 2026, beating April's $$1.97 billion, with seven trading sessions left to close the gap.

One fund took almost all of it

Bitcoin ETFs are financial instruments that give investors exposure to an asset without directly owning it. In the case of Bitcoin ETFs, the issuer of the fund holds the coin, and the investor owns a 1:1 equivalent, gaining exposure to the price of Bitcoin in real time.

These funds have been extremely popular among investors since they launched in early 2024, with the biggest fund issuer of them all—the $15 trillion asset manager BlackRock—as the primary beneficiary.

Adding to its already monster total, BlackRock's IBIT collected $502.99 million on Thursday, roughly 83 cents of every dollar that entered the category. Fidelity's FBTC took $64.74 million, Bitwise's BITB $26.4 million and Ark and 21Shares' ARKB $12.2 million. VanEck's HODL went the other way, shedding $3.59 million.

Compare that to Wednesday, when IBIT's share was 55% and eight of 12 funds finished positive with none in the red. A day later the total was bigger and the distribution was narrower.

Across the four sessions, IBIT alone accounted for about $1.09 billion of the $1.61 billion. That is closer to the pattern from earlier this month, when the funds drew $853.5 million over five days and roughly 80% arrived through IBIT.

The altcoin funds finally turned up

Ethereum ETFs added almost $221 million, their largest single-day intake since October 2025. That is also a fourth consecutive positive session.

The smaller products moved hardest in percentage terms. XRP funds took $13 million against $2.35 million on Wednesday. Solana funds took $15 million against $2.10 million. Every listed asset drew inflows, including Hyperliquid's product, which had been the lone outflow a day earlier.

On Wednesday, Bitcoin funds collected one dollar for every $220 that reached XRP funds. On Thursday that gap closed to about 47 to one.

So the money broadened across assets and narrowed within Bitcoin at the same time. That squeeze is not abstract, and it claimed a fund this month.

Hashdex shut its DEFI Bitcoin ETF, the first US spot Bitcoin fund ever liquidated, with a final trading day of August 17. It charged the same 0.25% as IBIT but held $14.7 million against IBIT's $47 billion, throwing off roughly $26,000 a year in fees—not enough to run a fund.

Anyone who held past the 17th lost their exchange exit. They are owed a cash payment at net asset value instead, dated either August 24 or August 28 depending on which Hashdex filing you read, minus closing costs and adjusted for whatever Bitcoin does while the fund sells its remaining 225 coins. That sale is happening during Bitcoin's best week since 2023.

Price ran ahead of the flows

Bitcoin traded around $77,000 Friday after challenging $80,000 overnight and touching roughly $79,400. It cleared $69,000 Wednesday and $72,000 Thursday, and is up about 24% since Monday—its best week since 2023—while still sitting some 38% below the record above $126,000 set in October 2025.

The run has not yet flipped the chart. Bitcoin's death cross has held since November 16, 2025, and while price has climbed back above the 200-day simple moving average at $69,005, the 50-day sits at $63,976. It needs to cover roughly $5,000 more before a golden cross, the inverse of the bearish death cross, completes.

Ethereum changed hands near $2,357 and XRP around $1.38, extending what was already its best week for the Ripple-linked token since the 2024 election pump to a roughly 38% gain. The move began with the Treasury's decision to at least double long-end bond buybacks, then accelerated through a squeeze that liquidated $3 billion in short positions in 24 hours, with another $1 billion wiped out Friday.

Bitcoin ETF net assets closed Thursday at $90.16 billion, equal to 6.18% of Bitcoin's market capitalization at that point, with cumulative net inflows of $53.40 billion since the funds began trading on January 11, 2024, per SoSoValue. Value traded across the sector reached $5.41 billion on the day. The expanded buyback program takes effect September 9 and runs through November 4, when Treasury sets sizes for the following quarter at its next quarterly refunding.