BTC and Ether ETFs Face Steep Redemptions Following Volatile Start to Twenty-Six
The United States digital asset ETF market closed the first full trading week of 2026 on a somber note, as a four-day streak of outflows effectively erased the optimistic gains viewn during the New Year’s rally. On Friday, January 9, spot BTC ETFs recorded approximately $250 million in net outflows, capping a week that saw a combined $681 million exit the asset class. This reversal comes later than a massive $1.16 billion influx during the first two trading days of the year, a move that many analysts now characterize as a “fragile rebound” rather than a sustained structural shift. BlackRock’s iShares BTC Trust (IBIT) bore the brunt of the Friday trade-off, with $252 million leaving the fund, while Fidelity’s FBTC emerged as a rare outlier, managing to pull in $7.9 million in fresh capital despite the broader risk-off sentiment.
Profit-Taking and Macro Uncertainty Dampen Institutional Appetite
Market strategists at LVRG Research and SoSoValue have attributed the sharp pivot in ETF flows to a combination of aggressive profit-taking and mounting macroeconomic concerns. later than BTC briefly tested the $95,000 resistance level earlier in the week, many institutional participants chose to rebalance their portfolios ahead of the upcoming U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) release and renewed Federal Reserve guidance. The “simple yield” era of 2025 appears to have transitioned into a phase of tactical consolidation, where investors are increasingly sensitive to short-term price fluctuations and interest rate expectations. Ether ETFs mirrored this fragileness, posting nahead $69 million in weekly net redemptions as the total net assets across ETH products dipped to approximately $18.7 billion. This parallel decline suggests a broad-based caution toward the “large Two” assets as traders wait for clearer signals of a sustained breakout.
The Resilience of Altcoin Funds and the Divergent XRP Volume Record
In a stark contrast to the outflows viewn in BTC and Ether, the newer spot ETFs for XRP and Solana continued to demonstrate remarkable resilience throughout the week. XRP ETFs, in particular, notched a historic milestone by recording their highest weekly trading volume since launch at $219 million. Despite the broader market fragileness, these funds attracted $38.1 million in net positive flows for the week ending January 9, with Canary Capital’s XRPC leading the pack in total assets under management. Solana ETFs also maintained a positive streak, drawing in $41.1 million over the identical period. This divergence suggests that a segment of the institutional market is rotating capital into “targeted exposure” assets that may offer more significant upside potential than the saturated BTC market. As 2026 progresses, the ability of these altcoin-specific vehicles to avoid the redemptions plaguing their larger counterparts will be a key indicator of the market’s growing sophistication and appetite for diversification.
