As Congress has remained silent due to a partial government shutdown, the crypto market is feeling the impact.
The lack of funding over the weekend not only caused investors to adopt a more cautious stance and avoid risk in spot markets; it also effectively froze activity in the crypto ETF space.
As a result, money rushed out of crypto investment products on the last trading day before the weekend.
Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs experience outflows
Spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs alone saw $509.7 million disappear in a single day.
This adds to a continuing trend of regular releases, in place since January 16, with only one day of entries.
BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF, IBIT, which typically attracts strong institutional demand, saw by far the largest outflow.
It saw $528.3 million in net withdrawals, while most other Bitcoin (BTC) ETF issuers saw little to no activity.
This withdrawal from institutions occurred as the price of Bitcoin fell 5.1%, falling to around $78,734 over the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.
The situation was even worse for Ethereum.
ETH ETFs saw combined outflows of $252.9 million, according to data from Farside Investors.
Here, BlackRock’s ETHA lost $157.2 million, while Fidelity’s FETH lost $95.7 million.
Meanwhile, the price of Ethereum (ETH) fell by more than 8%, falling to around $2,421 in the last 24 hours.
What about Solana and XRP ETFs?
Solana (SOL) was also hit hard as its price fell almost 10% to $105.36, alongside $11.3 million in ETF outflows.
Most of these sales came from funds managed by Bitwise and Grayscale.
Ripple (XRP), however, has been moving against the trend.
Even though its price fell 2.21% to $1.66, it was the only major crypto asset to see net inflows, attracting $16.79 million, according to SoSo Value data.
This suggests that some investors are separating XRP’s long-term regulatory outlook from current political and market uncertainty.
What more?
While markets focused on falling prices and the government shutdown, Bitwise quietly took a key step toward launching a new product.
The company recently registered a Uniswap ETF Trust (UNI) in Delaware, which is typically the first legal step before official filing with the SEC.
In short, even as short-term market pressure and political uncertainty weigh on prices, the race to apply for an altcoin ETF is not slowing down.
Final Thoughts
- Institutional investors reacted quickly, withdrawing large sums of capital from Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana ETFs.
- While prices have fallen sharply, the quiet moves of companies like Bitwise show that institutions are thinking beyond the current panic.
