Bitcoin ETF Outflows of $1.28 Billion Turn 2026 Flows Negative

$1.28 billion. That is the total of U.S. spot bitcoin ETF outflows in the five trading days from Nov. 2 to Nov. 6, according to The Block's analysis of data from SoSoValue. It was the worst week for the funds since late June, and it pushed their net flows for 2026 below zero for the first time since September.

The selling came during a rough stretch for every risky asset after the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Here are the figures that tell the story, followed by what they do and do not mean. For more coverage, see our crypto section.

The week in eight numbers

• $1.28 billion: net outflow from U.S. spot bitcoin funds for the week, the seventh largest weekly exit since they launched in January 2024, per The Block.
• $914.1 million: net flows for 2026 after the week, in the red. The funds started the week about $368 million in the green.
• $430.2 million: Thursday's outflow, the biggest single day of the week. Decrypt, citing Farside Investors, reported that no fund took in new money that day.
• $403 million: what left BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) on Friday alone, about 88% of that day's gross outflows.
• $74.6 million: Wednesday's net inflow, the only positive session of the five.
• $95.9 billion: bitcoin held by the 12 funds at the end of the week, down 2.3%, or about 6.3% of bitcoin's total market value.
• 5.6%: bitcoin's drop on Thursday, Nov. 5.
• About $75,880: bitcoin's price on Saturday morning, per The Block's price data.

How each day added to the $1.28 billion

The losses were not spread evenly. Monday opened with $398.6 million in withdrawals and Tuesday added $115.6 million. Wednesday briefly broke the pattern with a small inflow as bitcoin traded above $80,000, Decrypt reported.

Then Thursday hit. The Nasdaq Composite fell 5.5% and the S&P 500 dropped about 4.4%, with chipmakers and data center stocks leading the decline as investors questioned AI spending. We covered that slide in our breakdown of the AI stock selloff. Bitcoin funds lost $430.2 million that day, led by Fidelity's FBTC at $199.9 million and IBIT at $105 million, according to Decrypt.

Friday brought another $411.9 million out the door. Almost all of it came from IBIT, while FBTC actually drew $42.8 million in new money. That split shows how flows can swing between funds even when the overall direction is clear.

Why the 2026 total turning negative matters

Weekly numbers jump around. The running total for the year is a slower measure of whether big investors are adding to bitcoin through regulated funds, and it had been positive since late September.

Two things stand out. First, this is the second negative week in a row. The prior week lost $202.6 million, including a $643.3 million exit on Oct. 30 that The Block tied to the record Binance hack. That episode, and the $3.6 billion that left Binance after withdrawals reopened, had already shaken confidence before the election.

Second, the political backdrop shifted. Analysts cited by The Block linked part of the selling to the Democratic sweep of Congress, which raised questions for crypto policy we laid out in our look at the CLARITY Act timeline. One view in the report was that political change in Texas could slow the state's bitcoin mining and data center buildout.

It helps to keep scale in mind. Even after this week, the funds hold close to $96 billion in bitcoin. IBIT alone had net assets of $60.3 billion against $65.1 billion in total money put in since launch, a gap that reflects both withdrawals and the fall in bitcoin's price.

Ether and other crypto funds tell a similar story

Bitcoin was not alone. Spot ether ETFs shed $365.3 million, their sixth straight losing week, and are now down $405.6 million for the year. Solana funds lost $26.3 million for a fifth negative week, though they remain $676.2 million positive in 2026. This follows the pattern we saw in late October, when ether funds lost $170 million.

What these flows can and cannot tell you

Net flow is simply new shares created minus shares redeemed. As Decrypt noted, it cannot show why a holder sold. A pension rebalancing, a hedge fund unwinding a trade and a nervous retail investor all look the same in the data.

If you hold a bitcoin ETF, a heavy week of withdrawals does not change how your shares work. Each fund still holds the bitcoin behind its shares. Our guide to how bitcoin ETFs work covers the creation and redemption process in more detail. The figure worth checking next week is whether the 2026 total climbs back above zero or keeps sliding toward the $1.79 billion outflow week of late June.