Tax-Loss Harvesting Drives $825 Million Outflow from US Bitcoin ETFs This Week
US spot Bitcoin ETFs experienced $825 million in outflows over eight consecutive days, influenced primarily by year-end tax-loss harvesting and risk reduction ahead of the quarterly options expiry.
On December 24 alone, net outflows amounted to $175 million, with BlackRock’s IBIT ETF leading the charge at $91.37 million. Ethereum spot ETFs saw outflows of $52.70 million, Solana ETFs $1.48 million, and XRP ETFs $11.93 million.
Analyst Ted Pillows noted a geographic rotation pattern, with the United States acting as the dominant seller and Asian buyers providing the primary accumulation.
Activity among Binance-based whales sharply declined; large holder deposits dropped from $7.9 billion to $3.9 billion, and CryptoQuant data indicated that December whale inflows halved to approximately $3.86 billion. Despite this slowdown, Binance remains the largest single source of exchange flows.
Bitcoin’s market behavior has decoupled from the Nasdaq index, with correlation near zero and a negative correlation with gold, suggesting Bitcoin is considered a high-beta asset rather than a safe haven.
The Short-Term Holder Spent Output Profit Ratio (SOPR) has stayed below 1 for extended periods, implying recent buyers are exiting at losses or break-even levels. CryptoQuant's Bitcoin Chain Momentum Index (BCMI) suggests a bear-phase scenario, though it does not constitute a definitive forecast.
At the time of reporting, Bitcoin trades around $87,838, roughly 30% below its October peak near $126,000. Gold prices remain above $4,500 per ounce.
