US spot Bitcoin ETFs have been relatively resilient despite the +50% price decline of the crypto asset.
So says Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunasthe total BTC held by the ETFs fell by only about 7%. He viewed the holders, mostly boomers, as “diamond hands.”
“The price of Bitcoin is down 44% from its October high, but the amount of BTC held by the ETFs is down only 6.6%. Boomer strong.”
Source:
Before the October crash, US spot BTC ETFs had an all-time high of 1.362 million BTC. This supply had since fallen to 1.272 million BTC by February 4.
Can ETFs withstand the pressure?
When zooming out to the global holdings of BTC ETFs (covering offerings in the US, EU, Asia and other countries), the same picture emerged.
Over the same period, global BTC ETF holdings have increased decreased with only 72,400 BTC from the October high of 1.50 million to 1.428 million BTC. That’s only a 4.8% drop in BTC holdings.
Source: BOLD report
Put another way, the market fears and outflows of the past few weeks have not led to a massive drop in the number of BTC in ETFs.
However, the asset extended its price decline over the past 24 hours, trading at $60,000 for the first time since October 2024.
Although the BTC price had risen slightly to $65,000 at the time of writing, there was still insecurity on whether it had reached its final market bottom.
Source: Bloomberg
That said, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) saw its record daily trading volume of $10 billion and the second-worst price drop of 13% during the latest dump.
For BalchunasThis was ‘bold’, raising further questions about the ability of ETF buyers to remain resilient when markets fall.
Is $60,000 the bottom of the market?
Meanwhile, Chris Burniske, a VC partner at Placeholder and former crypto leader of Ark Invest, said the levels below $60,000 were ‘interesting’, but expected additional downside.
“Watch with interest, but don’t buy yet. Expect a revival, but doubt the bloodshed is over.”
Chris achieved the October market top and the resulting price drop. He had predicted that the market could bottom near $58,000 or $50,000 (levels in line with the 200-Day Simple Moving Average (SMA) and on-chain cost basis.
For their part, Bitfinex analysts seemed hopeful that the market was not in a better position to form a bottom after the price fell below the previous cycle peak of $69,000. But so are they echoed Burniske’s caution,
“Order books show most demand is below $66,000 as support bids were hit or withdrawn. That could bring some relief, but without stronger spot demand and ETF flows, any move risks being just a lower high in a fragile market.”
Source: Bitfinex
Final thoughts
- BTC held by US spot ETFs is down just 7% despite BTC’s +50% price drop since October 2025
- Despite the extended dip to the $60K-$65K zone, analysts seemed cautiously optimistic about a potential BTC bottom.