U.Today - The start of 2025 brought an unexpected twist for BlackRock (NYSE:BLK)'s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) as investors pulled out a whopping $332.6 million in just one day, which is equal to 3,413 BTC. This is the biggest withdrawal from the ETF since it launched, bigger than the $188.7 million anti record, which happened in the last decade of December.
A top ETF analyst Eric Balchunas from Bloomberg reacted to the historical anti record with a more "glass half full" approach, claiming that these pullbacks are to be expected and are long overdue.
He also said that Bitcoin ETFs probably won't keep growing so fast, and while the amount of money that left might have caught some by surprise, it's just a sign that things are shifting. It's like taking a breather on a journey where you have been moving forward consistently, from an expert's point of view.
The timing of these outflows lines up with a developing story in Bitcoin's price dynamics. There is a pattern on the charts that looks like a "head-and-shoulders" shape, and if it breaks below the $92,000 neckline, it could take the price to as low as $70,000 per BTC.
The details still tell a different story as IBIT ended 2024 on a strong note, pulling in over $37 billion in inflows over the year. Its Ethereum equivalent, ETHA, also got a lot of attention, raking in $3.53 billion.
These ETFs helped solidify BlackRock's spot as a major player in institutional crypto investment, with Bitcoin holdings worth about $53 billion and Ethereum at almost $3.7 billion. But even the best of these funds can be affected by market cycles.