U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds absorbed $998.95 million in net inflows on Monday, marking their strongest daily intake since Oct. 6, 2025, according to SoSoValue. The near-$1 billion surge coincided with Bitcoin briefly breaking above $87,000, extending a sharp recovery that also triggered heavy liquidations among traders positioned for lower prices.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, IBIT, led the day with $381.4 million in net inflows. Ark and 21Shares’ ARKB followed with $289.1 million, while Fidelity’s FBTC added $238.8 million. Funds associated with Grayscale, Bitwise, and Morgan Stanley also registered positive net flows, indicating that demand was spread across several issuers rather than concentrated entirely in the largest product.
The previous high for daily net inflows was $1.2 billion on Oct. 6, 2025. Monday’s result places the latest buying session close to that benchmark and reverses the more uneven pattern of fund demand seen during periods of heightened macroeconomic uncertainty.
Bitcoin reached roughly $87,300 during Monday’s trading, its highest level since January 2026, before retreating. At 3:00 a.m. ET Tuesday, Bitcoin was quoted at about $85,400, up 4.7% over 24 hours. Ether rose 2.5% over the same period to $2,730.
Short liquidations added momentum to the move
The advance was accompanied by $1.06 billion in cryptocurrency liquidations over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass. Short positions accounted for $844 million of that total, meaning traders who had bet on falling prices bore most of the losses.
Liquidations occur when leveraged positions no longer meet an exchange’s margin requirements and are forcibly closed. When short positions are liquidated during a rally, traders must buy back the asset they borrowed and sold, adding demand into an already rising market. That mechanism can intensify a move, particularly when prices cross technical levels that had attracted large clusters of leveraged bets.
The combination of strong ETF inflows and short covering helps explain why Bitcoin’s intraday move exceeded the pace suggested by spot-market buying alone. ETF subscriptions represent purchases through regulated fund structures, while derivatives liquidations can produce rapid, automated buying in futures markets. The two forces can reinforce each other over a short period, though liquidation-driven rallies can also lose momentum once the most vulnerable positions have been cleared.
Open interest in crypto derivatives rose 7.6% to roughly $156 billion during the price climb, based on the figures provided. Rising open interest alongside higher prices can indicate that new leveraged positions are entering the market, rather than the rally being driven solely by the closing of older shorts. It also leaves the market more exposed to abrupt reversals if price direction changes.
Bitcoin fund assets stand above $110 billion
SoSoValue’s figures place total assets held by U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs at $110.14 billion, equivalent to 6.3% of Bitcoin’s stated $1.71 trillion market capitalization. The products have become a major channel for exposure to Bitcoin among institutions, wealth managers, and other market participants that prefer exchange-listed funds over directly holding the asset.
Monday’s flows also arrived alongside renewed demand for spot Ethereum ETFs. Those funds recorded $269.98 million in net inflows, their largest daily total since Oct. 7, 2025, according to SoSoValue. The simultaneous gains suggest that buying was not confined to Bitcoin, although Bitcoin funds attracted nearly four times as much capital as Ethereum products.
That gap remains consistent with the structure of the U.S. crypto ETF market. Bitcoin funds have deeper assets, longer trading histories, and a wider set of large issuers. Ethereum ETFs have nonetheless started to show that demand can broaden beyond Bitcoin when market sentiment improves and traders become more willing to add exposure across major digital assets.
Macro events remain in focus
The rally unfolded as traders weighed several external factors, including movements in oil prices and U.S. Treasury yields, as well as expectations around a planned meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Shifts in yields and energy prices can affect broader risk appetite, while developments in U.S.-China relations can influence expectations for trade, inflation, and global growth.
The next U.S. weekly jobless claims report could provide another near-term test for the rally. Labor-market data can alter expectations for Federal Reserve policy, which in turn often affects the appetite for risk-sensitive assets, including cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin’s move above $87,000 showed that ETF demand can quickly reshape market positioning when it arrives alongside a heavily short derivatives market. The pullback to around $85,400 also showed that the level has not yet become a settled trading floor. Whether the latest fund inflows develop into a sustained trend will depend on whether demand persists after the immediate short-covering pressure fades.
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