ARKB accounted for $114.9 million of Friday's $201.9 million outflow, ending nine straight days of inflows totalling just over $3 billion. On Monday, IBIT alone supplied $205.9 million of the $216.7 million that came back.
US spot bitcoin ETFs gave back $201.9 million on 28 August, ending a run of nine consecutive days of net inflows that had added $3.04 billion between 17 and 27 August, according to Farside Investors. The break lasted one trading day. On 31 August the funds took in $216.7 million, and $205.9 million of that went to a single product, BlackRock's IBIT.
Friday's outflow was not a broad exit. Ark and 21Shares' ARKB lost $114.9 million, 57% of the day's total, with Bitwise's BITB down $49.7 million, IBIT down $33.4 million and VanEck's HODL down $13.2 million. Morgan Stanley's MSBT, which launched this year at a 14 basis point fee, was the only fund to add money. Monday's recovery was even more lopsided in the other direction: IBIT contributed 95% of the net figure, Fidelity's FBTC managed $6.9 million, and HODL bled a further $13.4 million while everything else sat at zero.
That concentration is the story of the whole run. Across the nine-day streak IBIT took in $2.30 billion of the $3.04 billion, and on 27 August it absorbed $277.6 million on a day when FBTC lost $83.6 million. Since launch the fund has gathered $63.57 billion, more than the entire category's $54.93 billion net because Grayscale's GBTC has shed $27.61 billion over the same period. The record week of 24 August, when IBIT pulled $1.33 billion, made the same point. Bitcoin ETF flows are now mostly a measure of one fund's distribution, and the other eleven products are noise around it. This site made the same observation about Solana ETFs, where one fund holds 80% of every dollar.
Nine days is not unusual for the category; the pace was. The streak averaged $338 million a session against a lifetime daily average of $83.1 million across the funds, roughly four times the normal rate on Farside's numbers, and it accounted for about 5.5% of the category's entire net intake since January 2024 in the space of two working weeks. Runs like that end. What matters is whether the money that arrived during them leaves, and Monday's print suggests it has not.
The macro backdrop for the pause is not hard to find. Bitcoin finished August up roughly 25%, its best month since November 2024 by CoinDesk's count, having pushed through $80,000 on 25 August as bond buybacks erased $4 billion of shorts. By the end of the month it had slipped back to around $78,000 as US Treasury yields climbed toward fresh 2026 highs and rate-hike expectations lifted the dollar. A single day of ETF selling into that reversal, led by the fund whose holders have historically been the quickest to trade, is closer to normal behaviour than to a change of mind.
ARKB has been the swing fund before. Its maximum single-day inflow on Farside's record is $268.7 million and its worst day is a $327.9 million outflow, a wider range relative to its $1.32 billion net total than any other fund in the table. Ark's investor base trades; BlackRock's, by the look of the flow data, accumulates. That difference explains how the streak could end and restart in consecutive sessions without the underlying demand picture changing much.
The ETH funds did not blink. Ether ETFs extended their own inflow run to eleven days on 31 August, and the week to 28 August had already delivered between $815.7 million and $824 million to ether products depending on the data provider, alongside $924.5 million for bitcoin funds. Spot demand for both assets through the ETF wrapper is holding even as the futures basis has trailed two-year Treasuries for months, which removes the carry trade as an explanation for the buying. Whoever is putting money into IBIT in September is doing it unhedged.
Farside's table also shows the fee war has done nothing to move share. Franklin's EZBC charges 19 basis points and has gathered $314 million since launch. Bitwise at 20 basis points has $2.08 billion. IBIT at 25 basis points has $63.57 billion. Distribution beats price, and BlackRock's distribution is not for sale.
Farside's figure for 1 September was incomplete at time of writing, showing $8.4 million for BITB and nothing yet reported from IBIT or FBTC.
