Flows into Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds surged more than 580% this week as one analyst noted that whales were piling into Bitcoin on pace for 2020's stock rally.
Last week, inflows into the 12 Bitcoin spot ETFs reached $2.13 billion, marking the sixth consecutive day of positive inflows. Weekly inflows into Bitcoin ETFs exceeded $2 billion for the first time since March 2024.
Net inflows across Bitcoin ETFs reached a record high of $20.94 billion. According to Bloomberg's Eric Balciunas, this is a milestone that has taken years for gold ETFs to achieve. The Bitcoin product took less than a year to develop.
Weekly inflows peaked on Oct. 14, when $555.86 million flowed into the ETF, but the pace slowed to $273.71 million by Oct. 18, according to SoSoValue data. I felt depressed.
No fund recorded negative flows on the last trading day, with ARK 21Shares' ARKB leading the pack. The recorded inflows are:
- ARKB of ARK 21Shares, $109.86 million, 7-day consecutive inflow.
- BlackRock IBIT, $70.41 million, 5-day inflow.
- Bitwise's BITB, $35.96 million.
- VanEck's HODL, $23.34 million.
- Fidelity's FBTC, $18 million, 6 consecutive days of inflows.
- Invesco's BTCO, $16.11 million.
- Franklin Templeton's EZBC, Wisdom Tree's BTCW, Grayscale's GBTC and BTC, and Hashdex's DEFI had no flow.
Accumulation of whales intensifies
This week's inflows into Bitcoin (BTC) products indicate strong demand from retail and institutional investors, and are consistent with an interesting accumulation pattern noted among whales.
In X, CryptoQuant author Woo Mingyu pointed out that the Bitcoin whale ratio on spot exchanges is very similar to July 2020, right after the coronavirus crash. According to the chart he shared, that's when Bitcoin's massive rally began. This suggests whales may be bracing for another long-term price surge. (See below.)
A similar accumulation pattern has also been observed among new whales by fellow analyst and CryptoQuant CEO Ki-Young Ju, who wrote in an October 16 post on X that the average coin age is It writes that new whale wallets less than 155 days old have reached a new high of 1.97 million BTC. (See below.)
Whales are often called “smart money.” That's because whales tend to buy when markets are down and ride out the ups and downs, using their deep pockets and strategic timing to make calculated moves. They typically position themselves before large price movements, so their actions are often indicative of where the market will go next.
While the increase in whale accumulation is fueling hopes for an upcoming bull market, multiple market analysts also believe the index will soon reach an all-time high, with the upcoming US presidential election being pushed as a potential catalyst. We expect it to reach that value.
Pseudonymous trader Crypto Raven said polls show Republican candidate Donald Trump's chances of winning in November's election are increasing, and this is just what BTC needs to hit new highs. He pointed out that it could be a boost. As Raven says, “If everything could go this smoothly, we could aim for the moon.”
On a more bullish note, Bitwise CIO Matt Hogan predicts that Bitcoin will reach six digits, driven not only by the upcoming election, but also by a surge in institutional demand and other macroeconomic factors.
At the time of writing, the flagship cryptocurrency was trading at $68,280, up 8.5% over the past week.
